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4  2^ 

The  French  Revolution 


J*MD 


flodern  French  Socialism 


Br 
JESSICA   BLANCHE    PEIXOTTO 


.w<yii2j.^' 


THE 

FRENCH  REVOLUTION 

AND 

MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM 


A  COMPARATIVE  STUDY  OF  THE  PRINCIPLES 
OF  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  AND  THE 
DOCTRINES  OF  MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM 


Thesis  presented  to  the  Faculty  of  the   College  of  Social   Sciences 
of  the  University  of  California  for  the  Degree 
^|j         of  Doctor  of  Philosophy 


BY 

JESSICA  BLANCHE  PEIXOTTO 

sftBRAR^ 

^  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1901, 

BY 

THOMAS  Y.  CBOWELL  &  COMPANY. 


TO 

PROFESSOR  BERNARD  MOSES 

IN 

Gbatepul  Acknowledgment  of  Inspiration  and 
Guidance. 


Very  sincerely  yours, 


PREFACE. 


A  LITTLE  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  there  were 
in  France  groups  of  men  radically  opposed  to  the  so- 
ciety they  saw  about  them.  These  men  were,  more- 
over, passionately  eager  to  impose  upon  the  nation  to 
which  they  belonged  a  new  social  order  which  they  ad- 
vocated. Although,  strictly  speaking,  they  had  no  for- 
mulated system  for  social  reorganization,  these  revo- 
lutionists of  '93  were  fairly  agreed  upon  a  certain  set 
of  theories  which  have  commonly  been  called  the  Prin- 
ciples of  the  French  Revolution.  The  defenders  of 
these  principles  were  the  French  Irreconcilables  of  the 
last  century. 

In  France  to-day  there  is  a  party  numbering  nearly 
two  million  voters.  This  party  sends  to  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies  some  eighty  representatives;  it  claims  to 
have  a  municipal  majority  in  Paris,  in  about  thirty  of 
the  other  large  cities,  and  in  twelve  hundred  of  the 
smaller  cities  of  France;  seventy-eight  or  more  among 
the  daily  and  weekly  journals  of  the  nation  are  said  to 
be  devoted  to  its  interests.  Persons  belonging  to  this 
party  profess  a  political  creed  sharply  criticising  the 
established  social  order,  which  they  stigmatize  as  retro- 
grade in  its  influence  on  society,  and  enslaving  to  the 
individual.  The  party  offers  certain  principles  by 
which  society,  established  on  a  new  basis,  shall  accom- 

92029 


vi  PREFACE. 

plish  its  true  mission.  In  the  future  order  they  plan, 
*^  progress  shall  engender  only  progress;  that  is,  pros- 
perity, health,  education  and  equal  intellectual  devel- 
opment for  all."  The  creed  of  the  party  goes  by  the 
name  of  Socialism.  The  persons  who  indorse  its  ideals 
are  chief  among  the  Irreconcilables  of  France  of  to-day. 
The  problem  undertaken  in  this  study  is  this:  To 
find  the  immediate  influences  which  formed  each  of 
these  two  important  schools  of  Irreconcilables  and  the 
doctrines  that  each  eventually  advanced;  to  find  fur- 
ther how  far  the  two  theories  involved  the  same  and 
how  far  they  represent  divergent  principles,  and  finally, 
to  suggest  any  conclusions  which  such  a  comparison 
may  seem  to  justify.  The  investigation  was  not  begun 
with  a  view  of  finding  whether  or  no  there  was  any 
socialism  in  the  French  Revolution.  Opinion  is  usually 
agreed,  and  recent  investigation  has  shown  ably  and 
conclusively^  that,  even  though,  during  the  Revolution, 
men  often  acted  and  talked  in  accordance  with  social- 
istic theory,  there  was  not,  until  1795,  any  really  con- 
scious socialism.  To  set  about  an  inquiry  concerning 
the  socialism  of  the  Revolution  would  be,  then,  at  this 
date,  to  undertake  a  superfluous  task.  The  aim  here 
has  only  been  one  of  statement  and  comparison.  It 
seemed  worth  while  to  ascertain  how  far  doctrines, 
reputed  to  be  essentially  opposed,  bore  any  likeness  to 
each  other.  To  define  the  immediate  influences  behind 
the  Principles  of  the  Revolution  and  to  state  their 
fundamental  character;  to  outline  in  a  similar  way  the 

1  See  notably,  "  Le  Socialisme  et  la  Revolution  frangaise." 
Etude  sur  les  idees  socialistes  en  France  de  1789  h  1796,  par 
Andre  Lichtenberger,  Paris,  1899, 


PREFACE.  yii 

growth  of  the  nineteenth  century  French  Socialism 
and  to  give  the  doctrine  it  has  most  recently  laid  down, 
and  then  to  compare  and  contrast  these  two  sets  of 
principles:  this  is  a  work  of  investigation  which,  so  far 
as  the  writer  is  aware,  has  not  yet  been  done,  except 
in  a  partisan  spirit.  Such  investigation,  made  im- 
partialty,  seemed  to  have  in  it  something  of  value. 

The  results  of  the  comparison  were  to  the  writer,  at 
least,  somewhat  unexpected.  It  would  seem  that,  in 
their  views  regarding  the  individual  and  his  rights, 
and  in  particular  his  right  to  happiness,  and  in  the 
general  lines  of  their  political  doctrine,  the  French 
Eevolutionists  of  ^93  and  the  French  Socialists  of  1900 
are  scarcely  separated  in  opinion.  The  immediate  is- 
sue in  both  theories  is  a  political  issue,  and  the  science 
of  economics  has  been  called  in  at  the  end  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  to  play  the  same  role  which  the  thesis 
of  Natural  Eights  played  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  fallacy  of  surplus  value  seems  to  have 
as  its  parallel  in  the  revolutionary  theory,  the  fallacy 
of  Natural  Eights.  Each  is  the  war-cry  for  a  political 
fight  made  in  the  name  of  a  social  injustice.  The  older 
agitation  posited  a  man,  happy  in  a  primeval  time,  but 
thrust  out  from  contentment  and  now  badly  in  need  of 
an  enlightened  government,  to  restore  him  to  his  birth- 
right. The  agitation  of  to-day  starts  from  the  con- 
ception of  a  man,  kept  a  long  time  from  his  just  in- 
dependence, but  slowly  pushing  forward  in  spite  of 
unremitting  opposition,  and  separated  now  from  his 
rights  by  nothing  but  a  machine  and  its  owner,  whom 
a  sycophant  government  protects.  In  either  case,  the 
deus  ex  machina  must  be  the  state. 


viii  PREFACE. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  real  and  interesting 
separation  in  the  social  philosophy  of  the  two  doctrines. 
The  later  theory  asks  that  an  additional  right  be  as- 
sured to  the  individual,  and  therefore  that  government 
assume  one  new  function,  and  it  bases  its  claim  for 
these  changes  on  an  idea  of  social  progress  different 
from  that  of  the  Kevolutionists. 

The  following  pages  aim  to  demonstrate  these  like- 
nesses and  differences.  If  the  matter  they  present  ap- 
pears insufficient  or  the  result  of  immature  judgment, 
it  is  hoped  it  will,  in  any  event,  be  an  inspiration  for 
some  stronger  work  along  lines  which,  it  seems  to  the 
writer,  cannot  but  be  helpful  in  adding  to  a  better 
understanding  of  latter-day  problems. 

The  bibliography  which  is  included  in  these  pages 
does  not  claim  to  be  in  any  sense  exhaustive.  It  is 
rather  indicative  of  the  ground  that  has  been  covered 
before  reaching  the  conclusions  here  set  down. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PART  I. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  FRENCH 
REVOLUTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE     CULTURAL    INFLUENCES    MAKING    FOR    NEW 
IDEALS. 

Page. 
I.  The    General    Character    of    the    Principles    of    the 

Eighteenth    Century    5 

The  new  tone   in   all   eighteenth   century  liter- 
ature      7 

Its  iconoclastic  teaching 9 

II.  The  New  Idea  of  Happiness   11 

The  method  of  finding  the  new  ideals 11 

Primary   conceptions    12 

Different  ideas  of  happiness  and  the  way  to  at- 
tain it  here  on  earth 17. 

III.  Doctrine  of  Liberty    25 

Intellectual    liberty    29 

Civil    liberty    31 

Political   liberty    33 

IV.  Theories  of  Equality  and  Property 37 

The  eighteenth   century  sympathy  for  the  idea 

of  equality   39 

The  positive  doctrines  of  equality  41 

The  theories  of  property   46 

V.  The  Relative  Influence  of  these  Theories 53 

Bibliography  of  Chapter  I . , , , 66 


CHAPTER  11. 

THE  SOCIAL  FACTS  WHICH  SHAPED  AND  DEVELOPED 
THE  NEW  IDEALS. 

I.  The  Part  Played  by  the  Old  Institutions 61 

Rise  of  contempt  and  even  active  reyolt  in  the 

time  of  Louis  XV 62 

The  vacillating  policy  of  Louis  XVI 69 

The  foreign  influences  , 75 

xi 


xii  CONTENTS. 

Page. 
II.  The  Middle  Class  and  Its  Relation  to  the  New  Prin- 
ciples      78 

Why  no  one  of  the  other  classes  led  the  move- 
ment for  a  new  set  of  principles 78 

The  Third  Estate  as  the  direct  instrument  for 

giving  realty  to  the  new  principles 86 

III.  Paris  as  an  Organizing  and  Concentrating  Influence,  93 

Salons    94 

Clubs    97 

Caf6s    100 

Theaters   103 

Newspapers    104 

Pamphlets    106 

Almanacs    107 

rv.  The  Final  Focusing  of  the  Principles  of  the  Revo- 
lution      109 

First  stage  in  formulating  them  is  reached  in 

1789    Ill 

The  final  struggle  to  legalize  the  new  principles,  115 

Summary    123 

Bibliography  for  Chapter  II 124 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

I.  The  Inclusive  Character  of  the  Revolutionary  Prin- 
ciples      129 

Their  predominantly  political  character 130 

II.  Fundamental    Conceptions    131 

Law  of  nature  1 34 

Theory  of  man  138 

Social  contract    142 

III.  The  Rights  of  Man   147 

How  the  natural  rights  became  positive  law.  . .  .  149 

Right  to  liberty 155 

Right  to  equality   160 

Right  to  property    163 

rv.  The  State  and  the  Individual  172 

Sovereignty    172 

The   relation  between   the    state   and   the   indi- 
vidual      178 

Conclusion    185 

Bibliography  for  Chapter  III 188 


PART  II. 

THE    DOCTRINES  OF  MODERN  FRENCH 

SOCIALISM. 


CHAPTEK  IV. 

THE  IMMEDIATE  ANTECEDENTS  OF  MODERN  FRENCH 
SOCIALISM. 

Page. 

I.  The  Beginnings  of  Modern  French  Socialism 193 

Leading   representatives    195 

The  salient  points  of  their  doctrine 196 

II.  Ideas    Which    French    Idealistic    Socialism    Had    in 

Common  with  All  Socialistic  Thinking 198 

Ideal  of  social  harmony   199 

Individual  happiness    202 

Social  justice    205 

Education  as  means  to  ameliorate  social  condi- 
tions       210 

Demands  in  regard  to  property  forms 211 

III.  Characteristics  of  This  Early  Socialism  Which  Are 

New  to  Socialistic  Theory   214 

Practical    aim    214 

Scientific    method 216 

Idea  of  social  progress 218 

Criticism  of  industrial  organization   222 

IV.  Influence  of  the  French  Idealistic  Group   231 

Bibliography  for  Chapter  IV 235 


CHAPTEE  V. 

THE  SOCIAL  FACTS  WHICH   HAVE   SHAPED  AND  DE- 
VELOPED MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

I.  The  Altered  Standing  of  Socialism  in  France  To-day,  239 

The  new  attitude  of  scholars  toward  it 239 

Its  political  status 241 

This  chapter  aims  to  show  causes  of  this  change,  241 
xiii 


XIV  C02ifTENT8, 

Page, 
II.  Alterations  in  General    Standards   Which  Have  Af- 
fected the  Doctrine  and  Position  of  Present- 
day  Socialism 243 

New  methods  of  investigation 243 

The  principle  of  democracy  in  France 248 

Growth  of  a  social  consciousness 255 

III.  Economic  Changes  Aid  to  Develop  a  Fourth  Estate . ,   260 
Increasing  interdependence  of  the  factors  in  pro- 
duction     261 

New    appreciation    of    the    value    of    concerted 

action   265 

Stimulated  desire  for  another  standard  of  life. .  .   268 
IV.  The  Final  Influence  Which  Defined  the  Character  of 

the  Present  French  Socialism 274 

The  influence  of  Marx 275 

The  organization  of  the  present  political  move- 
ment     278 

Bibliography  for  Chapter  V 287 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

I.  Scientific  Socialism 291 

General  character  of  scientific  socialism 291 

Materialistic  conception  of  history 295 

Surplus  value 302 

Concentration  of  capital 306 

II.  Integral  Socialism 314 

Its  distinctive  trait 315 

Origin  and  aim  of  society 316 

Individual  rights 321 

Theory  of  government 329 

Problem   of   property 335 

Supply  and  demand  under  the  socialistic  regime 

proposed 343 

Distribution  proposed  by  the  Integral  Socialists,  349 

Theory  of  value 352 

III.  Summary  of  the  Principles  of  the  Two  Schools 356 

Bibliography  for  Chapter  VI 359 


PART  in. 

COMPARATIVE  REVIEW  OF  THE  TWO 
DOCTRINES. 

,  Page. 

Comparison  of  the  Two  Theories 363 

General  characteristics  common  to  the  French  Revolu- 
tion and  to  French  socialism 363 

Similarity  of  the  view  regarding  the  individual  and 

his  happiness 363 

Similarity  of  the  political  theory 365 

Separation  of  theory  in  regard  to  function  of  govern- 
ment      369 

The  two  doctrines  of  property 370 

The  distinctive  part  of  modern  French  socialism 374 

Appendix  —  Tabular. 

Comparison  of  the  Two  Theories 381 

Index 387 

Bibliographical   Index 403 

XV 


PART  I. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  FRENCH 
REVOLUTION. 


r-: 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  CULTURAL  INFLUENCES  MAKING 
FOR  NEW  IDEALS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   CULTURAL   INFLUENCES  MAKING   FOR   NEW 
IDEALS. 

I.  The  General  Character  of  the   Principles  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century. 
II.  The  New  Idea  of  Happiness. 

III.  Doctrine  of  Liberty. 

IV.  Theories  of  Equality  and  Property. 

V.  The  Relative  Influence  of  these  Theories. 

I. 

An  analysis  of  any  epoch  in  the  intellectual  life  of  a 
given  society  seems  clearly  to  show  two  kinds  of  agen- 
cies at  work  during  the  process  of  development  —  the 
one  a  series  of  cultural  influences  reshaping  the  funda- 
mentals of  men's  thoughts;  the  other,  certain  social 
facts  which  make  way  among  the  masses  for  the  new 
thoughts  which  have  previously  been  developed.  The 
century  of  French  history  about  to  be  discussed  shows 
plainly  this  double  line  of  development.  France,  dur- 
ing the  eighteenth  century,  lived  through  a  severe  and 
interesting  social  crisis,  and  the  close  of  the  century 
saw  opinion  settle  upon  new  theories,  because,  at  the 
later  period,  two  potent  agents  for  change  had  finally 
completed  their  work.  The  teachings  of  a  new  phi- 
losophy on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  certain  con- 
ditions of  the  national  life  combined  to  develop  radical 
alterations  in  the  social  creeds.  The  origin  and  nature 
of  the  principles  of  the  French  Eevolution,  the  first  ob- 
jective point  of  this  study,  will  then  be  best  explained 
by  reviewing  the  leading  principles  of  the  eighteenth 


Q  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

century  philosophy  and  stating  certain  facts  in  the  so- 
cial growth  of  the  nation. 

The  character  and  influence  of  the  new  philosophy 
that  developed  in  France  during  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury has  been  so  often  and  so  ably  discussed,  during  the 
present  century,  that  the  subject  seems  threadbare  for 
one  who  comes  to  an  examination  of  it  at  the  end  of 
that  century.  French  thinking  got  so  undoubtedly  to 
the  center  of  the  stage  during  the  last  century,  even 
though  trained  to  its  part  by  English  thought,  that  all 
later  study,  in  whatever  quest,  seems  bound  to  take  ac- 
count of  it  and  to  start  from  it. 

The  surprisingly  wide  reach  of  subject  and  the  well- 
defined  purpose  which  marked  the  literary  activity  of 
the  eighteenth  century  will  then  be  readily  recalled. 
It  will  be  remembered  how,  even  before  the  seventeenth 
century  closed,  the  somewhat  euphuistic,  formal  and 
moralistic  literature  of  Louis  XIV's  reign  lost  its  com- 
placent tone  and  became  more  vigorous  as  it  became 
more  conscious  of  a  purpose.  Men  left  classic  subjects 
where  abstract  principles  were  the  chief  interest  and 
their  own  pompous  civilization  the  only  background 
they  knew  how  to  give  their  embodied  principles.  Dis- 
gusted, slowly  but  surely  with  the  formal  reality,  they 
substituted  first  an  ancient  or  pastoral  mode  of  life  and 
set  their  Durantes  and  Valeres^  moralizing  there.     By 

1  Compare  "  T^l^maque  "  of  F^nelon,  the  "  Histoire  de  S§v6r- 
ambes,"  by  Vairasse  d'Alais  (published  1677),  and  their 
numerous  prototypes.  (See  an  interesting  discussion  of  this 
class  of  writing  in  Lichtenberger,  Le  Socialisme  au  XVIII© 
si^cle,  chap,  ii,  pp.  36-63,  ed.  1895.)  See  also,  in  same  con- 
nection, the  novels  of  Marivaux,  especially  La  Vie  de  Marianne, 
Le  Paysan  Parvenu;  also,  the  dramas  of  Delisle;  in  particulaFj 


IfEW  CULTURAL  INFLUENCES.  7 

the  end  of  the  Grand  Monarch's  reign,  the  literature  is 
openly  criticaP  of  the  age  which  Louis  loved  to  hear 
called  the  "  Golden/'  Racine  dies  of  the  chagrin  caused 
by  Louis'  angry  rejection  of  his  plan  for  social  reform;' 
Moliere  finds  it  hard  to  keep  out  of  trouble  because  of 
his  unconquerable  desire  to  take  a  fling  at  manner  which 
he  despises,  and  to  say  a  scathing  word  about  institu- 
tions which  seem  to  him  shallow  and  ridiculous  ;*  Boileau 
sneers'  at  the  morals  of  his  time;  La  Bruyere®  pities 
and  scorns.  To  read  Vauban"^  and  Boisguillebert^  is  to 
know  how  convinced  men  were  that  the  times  were  out 
of  joint,  and  to  understand  that  literature  was  becom- 
ing largely  a  humanitarian  criticism  of  social  condi- 
tions. 

During  the  eighteenth  century,  what  at  the  end  of 
the  previous  century  had  been  tendencies  now  became 
pronounced  characteristics.  During  this  period,  phil- 
osophic thought  altered  its  tone;  scientific  learning 
took  new  life;  social  theory  as  such  was  practically  born 


"Arlequin    Sauvage "    (1721),   or    "  Timon    le   Misanthrope" 
(1722). 

2  For  example  Saint  Pierre,  whose  philanthropic  sentiment 
was  so  remarkable  for  his  time  that  he  is  credited  by  Voltaire 
with  having  introduced  even  the  word  "  bienfaisance  "  into  the 
language.      (Comp.  Voltaire,  Discours  sur  I'homme,  VII.) 

3  Martin,  Histoire  de  France,  XIV,  p.  343. 

*  Compare,  for  example,  the  attack  upon  religion  which  is 
expressed  in  "  Tartuffe  "  in  the  character  of  Orgon. 

5  Compare  the  "  Satires." 

6  In  the  "  CaractSres."     See  e.  g.,  "  Des  Grands." 

7  See,  in  "  Projet  de  Dime  Royal,"  the  demand  for  a  tax 
which  should  include  all  citizens  and  throw  the  burden  of 
government  support  upon  those  persons  whose  possessions  en- 
abled them  to  enjoy  the  luxuries  of  life. 

8  "  D^ail  de  la  France  sous  Louis  XIV." 


g  PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

to  French  literature.  It  is  true  the  '^  philosophes  '*  were 
chiefly  of  the  school  of  Helvetius,  d'Holbach,  or  Eaynal; 
true,  they  represent  the  narrow  view  of  the  material- 
ist, but  their  vigorous  presentation  of  a  somewhat  dis- 
honest doubt,  none  the  less  marks  a  definite  epoch  in 
the  history  of  the  thought  of  their  nation.  The  litter- 
ateurs of  the  time,  Voltaire,  Montesquieu,  Eousseau, 
Diderot,  Condillac,  D'Alembert,  vied  with  the  pure 
scientists,  with  Lavoisier,  Reaumur,  Laplace,  Buffon,  or 
Linnaeus,  in  showing  a  keen  interest  in  science  and 
taking  an  active  part  in  the  scientific  investigations  of 
the  age.  With  Quesnay,  Mercier,  Dupont  de  Nemours, 
and  Turgot,  economic  science  escaped  from  its  swad- 
dling-clothes. The  most  noteworthy  stir,  however,  was 
in  political  theory.  Almost  every  man  who  took  up  a 
pen  during  the  eighteenth  century,  was  moved  to  sur- 
mise about  and  to  pronounce  upon  social  conditions. 
Here  the  list  includes  the  greater  part  of  the  writers  al- 
ready mentioned ;  there  are  in  addition,  Meslier,  Morelly, 
Mably,  j^ecker,  Linguet,  names  for  the  social  reformer 
of  our  day  to  conjure  by;  and  all  of  these  are  but  a  few 
among  the  many  who  were  struck  with  the  difficult  sit- 
uation of  the  nation  and  tried  to  suggest  a  way  to  bet- 
ter it.  Purely  imaginative  writing  may  be  said  almost 
to  have  disappeared.  Prose  or  poetry,  scientific  re- 
search, philosophy,  little  was  put  into  writing  that  had 
not  the  study  and  representation  of  society  in  view  and 
the  instruction  and  reformation  of  the  reader  as  its  aim. 
In  all  branches  of  literature,  rhetorical  correctness 
survived.  Whether  it  was  Montesquieu  or  Diderot, 
Voltaire  or  Rousseau,  or  those  lesser  men  whom  facts 


OENERAL  CHARACTER.  9 

of  temperament,  character  or  immediate  surroundings 
made  the  innovators  of  the  time,  each  and  all  were  mas- 
ters of  the  instrument  of  language.  Though  the  eigh- 
teenth century  was  essentially  the  time  when  a  new 
faith  was  put  forward,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  capacity  of  the  advocates  of  this  new  thinking  to  put 
their  creed  before  the  world  in  the  brilliant  and  con- 
vincing fashion  in  which  they  did  it,  had  a  notable  part 
in  the  result  which  followed  their  writings.  Voltaire, 
Eousseau,  Diderot  and  the  Encyclopedists  said,  what 
they  and  all  their  world  were  beginning  to  feel,  in  a 
way  that  reached  the  emotions.  The  very  inconsisten- 
cies of  their  teachings  were  hidden  by  the  deftness  of 
their  word-painting.  Theirs  was  the  success  which 
usually  follows  when  the  artist  espouses  a  social  cause. 
The  tempest  that  none  of  them  foresaw  or  desired,  the 
tempest  from  which  the  few  who  survived  to  see  it 
fled  in  sorrow  or  disgust,®  may  safely  be  said  to  have 
been  inspired  by  the  untiring  pen-warfare  which  so 
many  of  the  literary  men  of  the  eighteenth  century 
waged  with  unparalleled  courage  and  brilliancy. 

At  the  period  when  this  new  type  of  literature  be- 
gan to  appear,  the  most  conspicuous  fact  in  French  na- 
tional life  was  that  decay  which  is  as  much  a  necessity 
to  progress  as  is  the  growth  which  the  word  habitually 
conveys.  A  certain  set  of  theories  which  had  arisen 
in  a  time  long  past  and  had  then  been  vigorous,  life- 
giving  principles,  were  still  clinging,  in  a  state  of  un- 
lovely decrepitude,  about  an  empty  and  evil  society. 

9  For  example,  Grimm's  emigration  in  disgust  at  the  time  of 
the  Revolution,  or  Raynal's  published  disavowal  of  it. 


10         PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

The  militant  theological  despotism  of  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries  had  been  carefully  woven  about 
with  a  protecting  armor  of  principles,  and  these  prin- 
ciples now  remained  like  an  empty  shell  from  which  all 
that  is  vital  had  long  since  departed. 

The  new  philosophy  was  first  of  all  an  effort  to  es- 
cape from  the  trammels  of  the  bigoted  and  shallow  sys- 
tem out  of  which  it  had  itself  developed.  In  the  pres- 
ent discussion,  that  which  was  new  in  the  thought  of 
France  in  the  eighteenth  century  is  the  prime  interest; 
but  the  power  of  this  same  philosophy  as  a  destructive 
agent  making  way  for  new  thought  is  not  to  be  for- 
gotten. The  alteration  in  opinion  which  so  insensibly 
crept  into  all  circles  of  French  society  during  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  is  due  before  everything  else  to  the  vig- 
orous onslaughts  which  a  number  of  able  .writers  made 
upon  the  earlier  creeds.  The  new  philosophy  took 
shape  during  the  progress  of  a  bitter  fight  with  the 
decaying  theological  despotism.  Young  men  who  had 
grown  up  under  the  hampering  influence  of  the  worn- 
out  traditions  which  the  ruling  minority  imposed  upon 
them ;  young  men  who  gradually  came  to  see  the  worth- 
lessness  of  these  traditions,  finally  rose  in  a  literary  re- 
bellion against  them. 

But  in  the  progress  of  this  rebellion,  these  younger 
minds  offered,  as  well,  a  constructive  doctrine;  and  it  is 
this  latter  which  is  here  of  first  interest.  "  Children  of 
their  times,^'^^  these  men  became  the  fathers  of  a  new 
set  of  national  principles.  They  had  looked  abroad; 
they  had  looked  at  home,  and  from  both  directions,  they 

10  Von  Hoist,  French  Revolution,  I,  p.  142. 


NEW  IDEA   OF  HAPPINESS.  H 

found  inspiration  to  ask  that  things  outworn  be  re- 
placed by  institutions  which  seemed  to  them  less  un- 
couth and  out  of  fashion.  To  make  a  brief  review  of 
the  doctrines  they  advanced  is  an  indispensable  first 
step  in  a  study  of  the  development  of  the  principles  of 
the  French  Kevolution.  "^ 

II.  .; 

The  one  fact  which  includes  all  others  concerning 
the  principles  of  the  eighteenth  century  is  this,  that  they 
represent  a  denial  of  authority  in  the  interests  of  indi- 
vidual judgment.  The  writing  of  the  time  passed  rap- 
idly from  wholesale  condemnation  of  existing  institu- 
tions to  a  broad  claim  for  reconstruction  upon  a  basis 
furnished  by  the  reason.  Organized  authority  was  dis- 
credited. In  its  place  arose  an  energetic  demand  for 
the  civil  and  even  political  liberty  of  the  individual;  a 
demand  for  a  recognition  of  the  truth  that  all  men  are  of 
common  clay  with  equal  rights  to  enjoy  life.  A  new 
idea  of  happiness  and  of  the  means  for  society  to  insure 
happiness  to  each  person  took  an  increasingly  strong 
hold  upon  the  cultivated  intellects  of  the  time. 

The  new  conceptions  were  the  fruits  of  adopting  what 
was  called  the  rational  method.  A  rising  revolt  against 
the  dogmas  of  the  Church  speedily  divided  intellectual 
France  into  those  who  denied  authority  based  upon  rev- 
elation and  those  who  continued  to  support  it.  While 
it  was  still  the  minority  who  set  up  the  doctrine  that 
reason  was  the  sole  trustworthy  guide  to  teach  men  the 
answer  to  the  problems  of  existence,  that  minority  rap- 
idly gained  precedence.     The  Church  unintentionally 


12  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

paved  the  way.  It  awkwardly  showed  men  that  its  re- 
ligious fervor  in  persecution  was  after  all  state  policy  ;^^ 
that  it  too,  more  often  than  not,  followed  the  prompt- 
ings of  reason  rather  than  those  of  revelation.  The 
brilliant,  witty  society  of  the  time,  enamored  of  fine 
writing  and  adopting  generalization  as  an  etiquette, 
quickly  accepted  the  theory  that  reason  is  man's  infal- 
lible guide.  Pascal's  age  called  it  "  foolish  reason ;  " 
the  eighteenth  century  proclaimed  it  to  be  the  indis- 
putable arbiter  for  all  questions  metaphysical  and  prac- 
tical. 

The  thought  of  the  age  may  be  said  to  have  begun 
and  ended  in  things  terrestrial.  Things  unseen  got  for 
the  most  part  a  careless  shrug  of  the  shoulders;  in- 
terest centered  about  watching  and  pronouncing  upon 
the  social  turmoil.  Skepticism  and  atheism  were  com- 
mon enough.  In  the  natural  course  of  things,  the  de- 
cay of  the  old  standards,  with  the  accompanying  arti- 
ficiality and  insincerity  of  much  of  the  life,  made  ma- 
terialism a  part,  and  not  an  unimportant  part,  of  the 
eighteenth  century  doctrines.  But  the  leaders  of 
thought  were,  or  thought  themselves,  deists.  There 
were  the  deists  who  did  little  more  than  posit  a  creator 
and  grant  him  ill-defined,  supreme  and  somewhat  ca- 
pricious powers  of  superintendence  ;^2  there  were  those 

11  When,  far  example,  it  became  known  that  the  ostentatious 
burning  of  heretical  writings  in  front  of  the  Palais  de  Justice 
was,  more  often  than  not,  a  burning  of  waste  paper,  because 
the  clergy  kept  the  original  ^\X)rks  for  their  own  reading. 
Comp.  Rocquain,  L'Esprit  rgvolutionnaire  avant  la  Revolution, 
ed.  Plon  et  Cie,,  Paris,  1878,  p.  271. 

12  Comp.  Montesquieu,  especially,  Esprit  des  Lois,  Bk.  I, 
ch.  i;  Voltaire,  Discours  sur  rHomme. 


PRIMARY  CONCEPTIONS.  13 

whit'only  "  felt "  the  Creator,  and  this  latter  class  had 
the  really  controlling  influence.  Eousseau's  deism, 
truly  enough  a  "  rag  of  metaphysics  floating  in  the  sun- 
shine of  sentimentalism,"^^  none  the  less  took  power- 
ful hold  upon  a  society  sick  to  death  of  formalism. 
Here  was  a  worship  which  rang  with  scorn  of  formulae, 
theological  or  philosophical.  Hearts  long  dulled  by 
lip-service  responded  to  that  scorn.  Here  was  a  wor- 
ship whose  claim  of  being  founded  upon  love  of  com- 
mon sense  (bon  sens)  and  love  of  truth,^^  appealed  di- 
rectly to  the  intellectual  pride  of  the  age.  All  the 
religious  impulse  contained  in  the  new  philosophy  is 
probably  best  summed  up  in  the  Savoyard  vicar's  simple, 
purely  emotional  deism  which  sneers  not  only  at  Catho- 
lic cults  but  also  at  philosophers'  dissertations.^^  The 
new  philosophy  may  be  thought  to  have  said,  "  Do  you 
want  a  guide  as  to  how  you  shall  direct  your  own  con- 
duct and  what  shall  be  your  relation  to  your  fellows? 
Take  a  heart  with  you  and  go  to  a  study  of  Nature." 

This  doctrine  is  well  defined  and  interestingly  dis- 
tinctive on  the  question  of  the  end  of  existence.  Most 
opinion  that  carried  weight  at  the  time  agreed  that 
personal  happiness  here  on  earth  was  the  goal  to  be 
striven  for.  On  every  hand,  there  is  rebellion  against 
what  the  ages  have  made  of  the  Christian  doctrine; 
against  the  interpretation  of  life  that  had  prevailed 
up  to  and  through  the  previous  century  —  a  conception 

iSMorley,  Rousseau,  II,  p.  277. 

14  Comp.  especially  Profession  de  foi  du  vioaire  Savoyard, 
Emile,  Bk.  IV. 

lOEmile,  Bk.  IV  (Vol.  VII,  p.  17,  ed.  1782),  "  Je  ne  suia 
pas  un  grand  philosophe  et  je  me  souci  peu  de  r§tre." 


14  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCB  REVOLUTION. 

that  regarded  misery  as  a  necessary  part  of  life  and 
self-abnegation  as  a  desirable  rule  for  personal  conduct. 
The  right  to  happiness  was  now  proclaimed.  The 
word  happiness  might  and  did,  as  will  be  shown  in  a 
moment,  convey  various  meanings  to  the  minds  of  those 
who  used  it,  but  the  right  to  some  kind  of  happiness 
was  unanimously  demanded  as  the  birthright  of  every 
individual.  Men  might  differ  as  to  whether  instinct 
or  reason  had  prompted  association,  but  they  all  agreed 
that  the  society  eventually  developed  was  intended  to 
bring  happiness  to  every  human  being.  The  whole  lit- 
erature of  the  time,  consisting  as  it  does  largely  of  pro- 
tests against  the  needlessness  and  the  abstract  wrong 
of  human  misery,  infers  where  it  does  not  state  it  in  set 
terms,  that  the  right  to  happiness  is  obvious.  From 
Saint  Pierre  to  Mably,  there  is  little  or  no  change  in 
this  point  of  view.  All  the  forceful  thought  of  the 
century  united  to  believe  that,  in  the  natural  and  right 
order  of  existence,  not  endurance  and  unrest,  but  en- 
joyment and  peace,  would  be  each  man's  portion. 

It  is  the  abstraction  of  a  natural  man  that  is  the 
chief  support  of  this  new  idea  of  happiness,  and  this  ab- 
straction is  worked  out  by  the  simplest  process.  Hu- 
manity is  put  under  the  microscope.  It  is  taken  for 
granted  that,  as  a  rule,  all  men  are  alike;  personality 
in  any  real  sense  is  altogether  neglected.  It  is  Man, 
the  genus,  that  is  carefully  examined.  After  the  ex- 
amination, the  philosophy  gravely  tells  us  that  all 
men  are  essentially  similar,  capable  of  the  same 
amount  of  joy  and  sorrow,  possessed  of  nearly  the  same 
endowments  and  subject  to  needs  which  differ  but  lit- 


PRIMARY  CONCEPTIONS.  I5 

tle.^®  Except  Montesquieu/^  Voltaire^^  and  Turgot, 
all  the  leading  thinkers  of  the  century  cut  man  away 
from  history  and  environment,  and  so  resolved  out  the 
"  Natural  Man "  by  that  mathematical  process  which 
the  age  put  so  much  faith  in.  Kousseau,  Diderot  and 
the  men  less  known  to-day,  who  were  influences  in  their 
time,  all  based  their  later  conclusions  upon  this  pri- 
mary conclusion  of  a  natural  man.^^  It  is  usual  for  the 
prevailing  theory  of  the  time  to  found  society,  as  the 
Physiocrats  did,^^  on  three  primary  instincts, —  those  of 
well-being,  of  sociability  and  of  justice, —  and  to  insist 
that  each  human  being  could  find,  if  he  would  seek  it, 
the  guidance  of  these  instincts  which  had  made  a  primi- 
tive man  happy.  It  was  believed  that  if  men  would 
now  use  their  intelligence  wisely  and  listen  to  the  dic- 
tates of  these  instincts,  they  could  find  the  laws  of 

16 This  is  the  idea  at  the  basis  of  Jean  Meslier's  "Testa- 
ment ;  "  in  Morelly's  "  Code  de  la  Nature,"  the  same  doctrine 
is  to  be  found ;  in  Mably's  works,  more  particularly  the  "  En- 
tretien  de  Phocion,"  it  is  equally  the  beginning  of  all  the 
doctrines  put  forward. 

17  Montesquieu  is  not  generally  ranked  as  one  who  recog- 
nized progress  in  history.  He  certainly  never  stated  the  prin- 
ciple in  so  many  words,  but  his  chief  works  advance  a  theory 
which  really  connotes  the  doctrine.  The  fact  that  he  did  not 
state  the  principle  is,  probably,  a  result  of  the  generally  un- 
scientific form  of  all  his  writings. 

18  Voltaire,  like  Montesquieu,  felt  only  instinctively  an 
evolutionary  process  in  society,  but  the  very  impulse  that  led 
him  to  write  the  "  Essai  sur  les  Moeurs  "  is  evidence  enough 
that  he  recognized  progress,  and  therefore  did  not  believe  in  a 
primevally  happy  man. 

19  Rousseau  preaches  the  natural  man  with  most  enthusiasm 
in  the  "  Discours  sur  I'origine  et  les  fondements  de  l'in#galit6," 
etc.,  and  in  ''  Emile." 

20Comp.  Collection  des  Economistes,  II,  p.  435  (cited  in 
Lichtenberger,  op.  cit.  p.  278). 


IQ  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

Natural  Justice  which  are  inherent  in  the  universe, 
"  laws  that  derive  from  truth  alone  and  not  from  au- 
thority.'' 

When  the  theorists  whose  influence  meant  so  much 
to  the  generation  that  came  after,  had  introduced  their 
natural  man  into  society,  the  usual  tendency  was  to 
make  him  a  creature  of  circumstance.  Man  was  good 
or  bad,  he  remained  in  a  state  of  primitive  perfection 
or  became  perverted,  according  to  his  opportunities. 
Those  opportunities,  society  furnished  him.  Good- 
ness and  evil-doing  came  to  be  regarded  as  variable 
social  attributes  of  man ;  morality  was  held  to  be  a  rela- 
tive term.  Montesquieu's  scientific  exposition  of  the 
relativity  of  all  laws  is  only  the  most  orderly  and  least 
exaggerated  expression  of  that  which  was,  in  relation  to 
ethics,  the  current  thinking  of  his  time.  In  most  cases, 
the  thought  did  not  go  very  far.  It  did  not  assert,  in 
so  many  words,  as  Montesquieu  did,  the  necessary  and 
desirable  variations  in  the  moral  and  positive  laws  of 
nations.  The  discussion  usually  concerned  itself  with 
standards  of  personal  conduct.  Again  and  again  it 
was  repeated  that  there  was  and  could  be  no  absolute 
and  fixed  law  for  all ;  there  was  no  single  and  rigid  rule 
of  moral  behavior  which  must  eternally  regulate  the 
acts  of  men.  In  particular,  the  code  of  ethics  then  ex- 
acted by  the  Church  was  said  to  be  in  direct  contradic- 
tion to  the  dictates  of  nature  and  reason.  It  is  even 
claimed  that  under  the  teachings  of  the  unworthy  the- 
ology of  their  time,  current  thinking  had  actually  come 
to  a  point  where  vices  were  held  to  be  virtues  and  vice 
versa.     The  new  creed  boldly  asserted  that  the  natural 


DEFINITIONS  OF  HAPPINESS.  17 

and  vigor-giving  tendencies  of  men's  natures  had  been 
cramped  and  distorted  by  a  fallacious  ethical  discipline. 
In  answer  to  the  profound  and  widespread  antipathy 
to  the  prevailing  forms,  the  intellectual  opinions  of  the 
time  took  up,  and  preached  with  cumulative  force,  the 
doctrine  that  man  is  not  justifiably  asked  to  live  a  life  of 
self-denial  and  suffering;  that  earth  and  its  bounties 
are  for  man's  enjoyment,  and  that  the  natural  order  of 
things  prescribes  free  play  for  man's  emotional  and  in- 
tellectual life. 

It  became  then  a  leading  principle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  that  Nature  was  the  only  trustworthy  guide. 
Kightly  consulted  and  recognized,  the  "  code  "  of  nature 
would  teach  men  how  to  live  and  how  to  associate  with 
each  other.  Not  renunciation,  but  a  proper  attention  to 
the  demands  of  one's  nature,  would  show  men  the  true 
means  for  useful  living.  This  creed,  which  later  became 
little  more  than  the  glorification  of  the  passions  under 
the  cloak  of  sentiment  and  energy,  was  now  announced 
as  the  right  to  happiness. 

There  are  interesting  and  noteworthy  differences  as 
to  what  is  the  meaning  of  the  term  happiness,  what 
the  way  to  bring  it  about  and  what  the  social  state 
which  each  conception  of  it  implies.  Three  groups 
can  be  easily  distinguished.  There  are  first,  those  who 
held  happiness  to  be  conditioned  by  a  vigorous  and  ac- 
tive industrial  society  where  the  state  guaranteed  per- 
fect civil  liberty;  secondly,  those  who,  on  the  contrary, 
saw  happiness  in  a  frank  acceptance  of  the  conditions 
to  which  one  was  born;  and  finally?  those  who  thought 
2 


IQ  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

that  happiness  consisted  in  a  virtue^^  which  might  be 
maintained  for  the  individual  or  the  state  only  by  the 
exclusion  of  luxury. 

The  Economists  are  the  best  representatives  of  the 
first  of  these  groups.  For  all  of  this  school,  happiness 
meant  wealth.  Eidding  the  term  wealth  of  that  nar- 
row interpretation  which  up  to  this  time  had  made  it 
coincide  with  money,  these  economic  philosophers  gave 
it  all  but  a  modern  interpretation.  Wealth  was  every- 
thing that  had  exchange  value,  and  it  was  such  wealth 
that  was  the  supreme  good.  When  man  should  know 
how  to  create  the  greatest  possible  amount  of  such 
wealth,  individual  and  national  happiness  would  be 
insured.  If  the  Physiocrats  held  to  a  notion  of  value 
which  denied  real  value  to  anything  but  agricultural 
product,  it  was  because  in  their  conception  this  form 
of  product  alone  meant  real  and  evident  addition  to  the 
goods  that  were  capable  of  increasing  the  strength  and 
power  of  societj^,  and  so  the  only  real  addition  to 
men's  happiness.  Increase  of  product  meant  to  them 
increased  wealth,  and  in  their  conception  wealth  was 
the  only  certain  means  to  increased  happiness.  The 
Physiocrats  ardently  urged  that  knowledge  should  be 
made  more  general;  that  the  sciences  and  arts  should 
aim  directly  to  serve  the  needs  of  man,  and  that  educa- 
tion should  strive  to  lift  more  and  more  of  humanity 
above  the  lower  levels  of  existence;  but  all  of  this  was, 
in  the  eyes  of  most  of  the  school,  merely  so  many  means 
to  an  all-important  end.     The  doctrine  is  now  promul- 

21  Virtue  never  came  to  mean  anything  more  specific  than 
the  observance  of  the  virtues  of  justice,  temperance,  courage 
and  the  like. 


I 


MEANS  TO  INSURE  BAPPINE88.  19 

gated  which  economists  and  socialists  alike  have  since 
been  wont  to  urge  as  the  essential  truth  which  shall 
guide  all  social  action,  the  doctrine  that  the  final  end 
of  human  activity  is  a  full  understanding  of  the  use 
of  the  products  of  Nature.  The  Physiocrats  believed 
that  when  such  knowledge  shall  have  been  acquired  and 
wealth  shall  have  increased,  then  and  not  until  then,  a 
greater  happiness  might  be  expected;  then  the  benefi- 
cent intentions  of  the  Natural  Law  that  properly  rules 
all  matter  and  all  mind  would  be  fulfilled.  Since  the 
name  of  the  Physiocrats  is  connected  for  all  time  with 
the  doctrine  of  "  Laisser  faire  "^^  it  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  state  that  they  stand  in  the  front  ranks  of 
those  who  advocated  entire  individual  freedom  as  a 
further  measure  to  insure  happiness.  If  some  of  the 
school  desired  an  enlightened  despotism,  it  was  only 
because  these  held  it  to  be  the  best  means  for  guarding 
the  individual  initiative,  which  they  counted  as  the 
condition  to  the  kind  of  production  that  would  make 
happiness  certain  for  all.  It  would  seem  then,  that 
this  plan  for  bringing  about  a  general  happiness,  a  plan 
acceptable  to  so  many  influential  men  of  the  period,^ 
was  a  project  for  increasing  the  natural  wealth  of  the 

22  On  origin  of  the  term,  comp.  Higgs,  The  Physiocrats,  p. 
67. 

23  The  Economists  included  men  in  every  walk  of  life,  as 
a  list  of  the  names  of  the  more  important  among  them  will 
show.  L6on  Say,  citing  Dupont  de  Nemours,  gives  the  chief 
members  of  the  school,  as  follows:  (1)  Quesnay,  with  Mira- 
beau,  Abeille,  Fourquex,  Bertin,  Dupont  de  Nemours,  AbbS 
Roubaud,  Mercier  de  la  Riviere  and  Abb6  Baudeau;  and  (2) 
Gournay  with  Malesherbes,  Morel  let,  Trudaine  de  Montigny, 
le  Cardinal  de  Boisgelin,  Abb6  Cice  and  Turgot.  Comp.  L4on 
Say,  Turgot,  p.  58,  ed.  Hachette,  Paris,  1891. 


20  PRINCIPLES  OF  PltENCn  ttEVOLUTlOI^. 

country  to  the  highest  limit  —  all  in  the  expectation 
that  every  increase  of  the  natural  product  would  add  to 
the  possibilities  of  general  happiness,  especially  if  men 
were  left  entirely  unhampered  to  appropriate,  to  re- 
distribute and  to  consume  the  increasing  supply .^^ 

"  The  nations  surround  themselves  with  the  luxury 
of  wealth  and  the  luxury  of  minds,  and  men  too  often 
lack  bread  and  common  sense.  In  order  to  assure  to 
them  all,  the  bread,  the  good  sense  and  the  virtues  that 
are  necessary  to  them,  there  is  but  one  means:  it  is 
neoessary  to  enlighten  greatly  both  peoples  and  gov- 
ernments."^ Thus  Montesquieu,^  the  influence  be- 
hind all  the  sober  liberalism  of  the  age,  and  with  him, 
Voltaire,  reputed  chief  iconoclast  and  scoffer  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  In  matters  of  political  and  social 
theory,  Voltaire,  as  well  as  Montesquieu,  was  really  a 
conservative;  he,  as  well  as  the  greater  political  theorist, 
believed  in  accepting  life  as  he  found  it.  Therefore 
on  the  question  of  means  to  secure  happiness,  both  held 
happiness  to  be  quite  independent  of  station  in  life.*^ 
Happiness  meant  freedom  in  the  sphere  to  which  one 
was  bom;  meant  peace  and  power  to  satisfy  unmolested, 

24  It  will  be  interesting  to  remember,  when  the  socialists  of 
the  nineteenth  century  come  under  discussion,  how  they,  con- 
sciously or  not,  took  the  keynote  of  their  doctrine  from  the 
Physiocrats  who  popularized  the  laisser  faire  principle  so 
hateful  to  all  socialists. 

25  Garat,  M6moires  historique  sur  le  XVIIIe  si^cle  et  sur  M. 
Suard,  p.  302,  cited  in  Lichtenberger,  op.  cit.  p.  93. 

26  The  general  tenor  of  the  "  Considerations  sur  les  Causes 
de  la  Grandeur  et  de  la  Decadence  des  Romains,"  and  of  the 
"  Esprit  des  Lois,"  is  taken  to  be  an  entire  verification  of  Mon- 
tesquieu's point  of  view  in  this  matter. 

27  Comp.  e.  g.  "  Essai  sur  les  Moeurs,"  ch.  xcriii,  and  many 
passages  in  the  "  Lettres  sur  les  Anglais." 


MEANS  TO  INSURE  HAPPINESS.  21 

inclinations  purely  intellectual.  All  men  need  not  have 
the  advantages  of  wealth  nor  even  the  opportunities  for 
special  culture;  they  need  only  be  free  from  the  in- 
sistent intrusions  of  a  dogmatic  church  and  a  self-seek- 
ing state.  According  to  their  view,  happiness  was  to  be 
found  wherever  men  were  left  alone  to  enjoy  that  which 
their  situation  in  life  had  given  them.  Wherever  hu- 
manity was  free  to  live  peacefully  without  being  forced 
to  subscribe  to  a  code  of  superstition  and  ignorance,  or 
to  feel  itself  at  the  mercy  of  a  capricious  law,  there  men 
might  and  should  be  happy.  A  nation  might  hope  to 
be  made  up  of  contented  persons  if  its  laws  made  civil 
and  intellectual  liberty  certain  This,  the  view  of  con- 
servative materialism  in  every  age,  was  not  only  that 
of  Montesquieu  and  Voltaire,  but  was  one  shared  as 
well  by  a  great  majority  of  that  numerous  and  all  in- 
clusive group,  the  Encyclopedists.^ 

Very  different  from  this  easy  acceptance  of  the 
necessary  differences  of  station  and  possession,  this 
transfer  of  the  seat  of  happiness  to  the  subjective  life, 
is  the  idea  of  happiness  that  characterizes  the  last  group 
to  be  discussed  here.  In  the  idea  of  writers  like  Saint 
Pierre,  Meslier  and  Morelly,  of  Eousseau  and  some 
of  his  most  enthusiastic  followers  like  Mercier  de  la 


28  Diderot,  in  particular.  Mably  expresses  perfectly  the 
glittering  generality  with  which  the  majority  at  the  period  in 
question  charmed  itself  iato  hopefulness  when  he  said  that  all 
social  evils  have  come  about  because  "  on  a  attache  le  bonheur 
a  la  possession  des  richesses,  au  lieu  de  se  souvenir  qu'il  §tait 
en  nous,  plus  que  dans  les  objets  qui  nous  environnent,  et  que 
celui  des  nations,  comme  celui  des  particuliers,  6tait  attache 
a  une  bonne  morale."  Mably,  Principes  de  morale,  (Euvres,  tom. 
X.,  p.  305  ( cited  in  Lichtenberger,  op.  cit.,  p.  228 ) . 


22  TBINCIPLE8  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

Kiviere  or  Ketif  de  la  Bretonne,  happiness  meant  vir- 
tue, virtue  being  interpreted  to  mean  primarily  a  keen 
sense  of  social  justice.  Here  happiness  still  depends 
upon  liberty;  but  this  latter  really  rests  upon  equality, 
and  both  will  fail  to  be  efficient  if  there  is  not  to  be 
found  in  the  community  a  certain  sense  of  fraternity. 
This  ideal  of  happiness  is  evident  enough  in  Saint 
Pierre^  and  in  Meslier,  though  it  is  hard  to  find  a 
word  in  the  various  projects  of  the  one  or  the  "  Testa- 
ment "  of  the  other  which  precisely  states  this  view. 
In  D'Argenson,  this  idea  of  happiness  is  the  one  always 
implied.^^  But  it  was  Eousseau  and  his  followers  who 
did  most  to  popularize  such  a  conception  of  happiness; 
it  was  they  who  industriously  preached  it,  along  with 
the  additional  thought  that  if  all  persons  would  adopt 
a  simple  rural  life  and  a  strict  suppression  of  all  lux- 
uries there  would  then  be  sufficient  subsistence  to  sup- 
ply the  needs  of  all,  and  so  every  one  would  be  enabled 
to  enjoy  the  real  blessings  which  Nature  provides  for 
each  of  her  children.  Exactly  in  opposition  to  the 
view  of  the  Physiocrats,  this  group  held  that  abstinence 
and  a  careful  management  of  consumption  were  of  far 
more  importance  than  an  increase  of  product. 
"  Emile  ",  "  La  Nouvelle  Heloise  '^  "  L'An  2440  ''  of 
Mercier,    ^^Le   Paysan   Perverti "   and   ^^L'Ecole    des 

29Comp.,  however,  Saint  Pierre,  CEuvres,  torn,  xiii,  p.  12. 
"  Je  suppose  que  si,  dans  la  soci^t^,  les  hommes  6tait  tr§s 
justes  et  tr^s  bienfaisants  les  uns  vers  Ics  autres,  ils  seraient 
en  cette  vie,  incomparablement  plus  heureux  qu'ils  ne  sont." 
(Cited  in  Lichtenberger,  op.  cit.  p.  71.)  For  example,  he  says: 
"  Quand  nous  savons  resserrer  nos  besoins,  nous  devenons 
semblable  aux  dieux."  M6moires,  ed.  Rathery,  I,  p.  xxiii,  cited 
in  Lichtenberger,  op.  cit.  p.  96. 

30  See  e.  g.  the  passages  cited  from  him  in  Lichtenberger,  op. 
oit.,  pp,  95-97. 


MEANS  TO  INSURE  HAPPINESS.  23 

Peres  "  of  Ketif  de  la  Bretonne  are  so  many  ideal  pic- 
tures which  aim  to  point  the  value  of  a  life  of  rural 
simplicity,  to  accent  the  happiness  which  such  a  life 
offers,  and  to  show  the  unhappiness  which  results  from 
abandoning  it  for  the  vicious  atmosphere  of  a  city.^^ 
In  the  minds  of  this  group,  happiness  summed  up  as 
a  sentimental  demand  for  social  justice  to  be  realized  by 
rural  life  and  simple  tastes. 

It  will  be  noted  that,  on  certain  points,  all  these  theo- 
ries agree.  All  contend  that  happiness  is  "  our  be- 
ing's end  and  aim,"^^  and  all  hold  that  a  certain  social 
arrangement  could  bring  about  such  happiness.  Chief 
interest  centers  about  the  second  point. 

The  problem  which  was  after  all  of  first  interest  to 
all  the  writers  of  this  century  was  the  discovery  of  the 
social  system  which  would  give  men  the  happiness  that 
should  be  theirs.  Public  opinion  in  France  had  always 
permitted  absolute  authority  to  the  state,  and  had  also 
accepted  the  idea  that  undivided  responsibility  for 
social  well-being  rested  with  that  state.  The  new  phi- 
losophy did  not  contradict  this  idea.  When  it  set  up 
the  notion  of  a  universal  right  to  happiness,  it  again 
brought  forward  the  state  as  the  only  means  to  bring 
about  those  conditions  which  would  realize  happiness 
for  each  individual.  That  "  each  has  the  right  to  de- 
mand that  society  render  his  situation  more  advan- 
tageous than  it  is  in  a  state  of  nature  "^^  was  a  thought 

<«l  See  especially  "  Paysan  Perverti  "  and  "  Nouvelle  H§loIse." 

32  Pope's  "  Essay  on  Man  "  was  the  inspiration  for  much  of 
the  theory  of  the  time. 

33  Mably,  Droits  et  Devoirs,  XI,  p.  271. 


24  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

which,  by  the  time  Mably  wrote  it  in  the  second  half  of 
the  century,  had  come  to  be  a  commonplace  to  culti- 
vated men. 

Difference  of  opinion  appears  now,  as  in  all  time, 
when  the  new  theories  undertake  to  define  the  exact 
way  in  which  the  state  was  to  further  the  happiness  of 
the  individual.  The  idea  varies  according  to  the  un- 
derlying notion  concerning  the  relation  between  the  in- 
dividual and  the  state ;  but  whether  they  aimed  to  alter 
and  widen  much  or  little  the  sphere  of  the  individual, 
the  reformers  looked  almost  invariably  to  the  state  for 
any  real  amelioration  of  social  conditions.  The  ma- 
jority held  that,  to  carry  out  its  function  properly,  the 
state  must  secure  to  its  subjects  liberty  of  thought  and 
person.^*  Others  held  that  a  universal  equality  was 
the  only  means  to  secure  to  each  individual  the  liberty 
that  was  necessary  and  proper.^^  There  were  a  few 
who  asked  that  the  state  bend  all  its  energies  to  devel- 
oping a  fraternal  spirit;  for  they  believed  that  the 
promptings  of  this  fraternal  spirit  would  lead  men  to 
desire  a  general  equality  of  rank  and  possession,  and  so 
finally  insure  real  liberty  to  all.^^     Among  these  new 

34  Montesquieu,  Voltaire,  Diderot  and  most  of  the  other 
Encyclopedists  are  of  this  group. 

35  The  more  important  representatives  of  this  group  are 
Morelly,  Necker  and,  in  a  qualified  way,  Mably. 

36  This  last  view  of  liberty  by  way  of  fraternity,  a  theory 
of  our  own  time,  now  put  forward  by  the  Nationalist  and 
Christian  socialists,  had  least  vogue  in  just  this  specific  form, 
though  it  has  been  shown  that  there  were  an  appreciable 
group  of  lesser  writers  whose  ideas  centered  about  this  doc- 
trine of  fraternity.  (See  Lichtenberger,  op.  cit.,  pp.  348-355.) 
The  real  idea  of  Rousseau  and  such-  of  his  disciples  as  Raynal 
and  R^tif  de  la  Br^tonne^  is  very  nearly  this  one  of  fraternity. 


DOCTRINE  OF  LIBERTY.  25 

principles,  we  hear  most  of  a  much-needed  liberty  and 
a  highly  desirable  equality. 

III. 

It  has  already  been  suggested  that  when  the  less 
popular  but  more  forceful  literature  of  the  first  half  of 
the  century  is  turned  over,  a  new  note  is  evident  in  all 
of  it;  that  when  one  puts  aside  the  carefully-expressed 
but  often  lifeless  sentences  and  utterly  unreal  tales  of 
those  writers  who,  like  Crebillon,  Dufresny  or  J.  B. 
Kousseau,  made  the  belles-lettres  of  the  time,  and  opens 
the  social  philosophers,  the  difference  in  quality  and 
tenor  of  thought  is  striking,  and  most  striking  is  the 
sharp  reaction  from  the  rule  of  authority. 

The  idea  of  happiness  now  being  put  forward,  in- 
volved as  has  been  shown,  the  idea  of  liberty.  The 
doctrine  that  the  individual  must  be  free,  the  doctrine 
of  individual  liberty,  was  that  most  generally  and  posi- 
tively urged  during  the  eighteenth  century.  When  it 
is  remembered  how  repressive  measures  limited  men's 
acts  at  every  turn,  this  seems  only  natural.  Almost  of 
necessity,  there  came  a  rebound  from  the  narrow  for- 
malism which,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  had  largely 
controlled  art  and  letters,  government  and  manners. 
The  age  of  artificial  dress,  manners  and  speech  survived 
well  into  the  succeeding  century,  but  thinking  by  rule 
went  out  long  before.  Eeasoned  in  a  narrow  and  con- 
ventional way  though  much  of  it  be,  there  is  now  a 
universal  call  for  independence. 

This  demand  for  the  extension  of  the  sphere  of  the 
individual  may,  in  a  loose  way,  be  said  to  have  gone 


26  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

through  three  phases.  It  moves,  from  Meslier's  first 
emotional  expression  of  it/^  to  Montesquieu's  care- 
fully weighed,  almost  Machiavellian  statement  of  its 
value,  and  then  goes  boldly  on  from  Montesquieu  to 
Rousseau.  In  the  earlier  period,  aggressive  thought 
had  scarcely  gone  beyond  the  regrets  and  palliatives  of 
such  as  Saint  Pierre  or  the  fears  and  reproaches  of 
court  frequenters  like  D'Argenson.     Occasionally,  the 

87  The  "  Testament "  of  Jean  Meslier  contains  the  most 
unequivocal  demand  for  liberty  to  be  found  in  the  literature  of 
the  first  half  of  the  century.  Meslier  was  possessed  by  an  ex- 
treme loathing  for  the  traditional  legal  and  social  institutions 
under  which  he  lived.  What  he  voices  in  his  book  is  little 
more  than  bitter  rebellion  against  a  church  and  state  abso- 
lutism which  he  thinks  exists  only  in  order  to  exploit  and  de- 
grade the  mass  of  the  nation.  Men  should  be  free;  they  could 
be  free;  let  them  free  themselves  by  a  vigorous  onslaught 
upon  the  church  and  state  who  are  the  chief  sinners  against 
the  liberties  of  men.  This  is  the  whole  tenor  of  the  "  Testa- 
ment; "  it  is  an  emotional  arraignment  of  a  fixed  authority 
over  thought  and  act,  rather  than  any  defined  and  rational 
analysis  of  the  pros  and  cons  of  the  matter.  Tliere  seems  no 
precise  idea  as  to  what  freedom,  when  gained,  sliould  consist 
in.  The  work  is  noteworthy  as  the  first  passionate  expression 
of  a  feeling  that  later  in  the  century  became  reasoned  con- 
viction. It  had  no  political  influence,  for  Meslier  was  hardly 
known  to  his  own  time,  except  as  a  religious  writer  (Comp. 
Lichtenberger,  op.  cit.,  p.  75),  and  his  demand  for  liberty  was 
counted  among  the  revolts  against  the  tyranny  of  the  Church. 
Though  his  book  really  asks  for  a  liberty  that  is  far  more  wide- 
reaching  than  this,  his  influence  upon  his  time  can  scarcely 
have  been  any  but  an  anti-clerical  one.  The  title  of  his  book 
is  an  interesting  revelation  of  its  tenor.  In  full,  it  rnus  as 
follows:  "M^moires  des  pens^es  et  des  sentiments  de  Jean 
Meslier,  cur§  d'Etrepigny  et  de  But,  sur  une  partie  des  abus 
et  des  erreurs  de  la  conduite  et  du  gouvernement  des  hommes, 
oH  Ton  voit  des  demonstrations  claires  et  ^videntes  de  la  vanit6 
et  la  faussete  de  toutes  les  divinites  et  de  toutes  les  religions 
du  monde,  pour  ^tre  adress4  a  ses  paroissiens  apr^s  sa  mort 
et  pour  leur  servir  de  t^moignage  de  v6rit6  a  eux  et  a  tons 
leurs  aemblables." 


t 


DOCTRINES  OF  LIBERTY,  27 

imaginative  literature  expresses  this  revolt  against  the 
cramping  system  and  the  false  manners  that  prevailed.^^ 
But  the  increasing  unrest  due  to  home  and  foreign  in- 
fluences gradually  made  for  additional  clearness  con- 
cerning the  change  desired.  As  impatience  with  the 
insincerity  and  capriciousness  of  the  traditional  au- 
thority grew,  the  conception  of  liberty  became  better 
defined.  By  the  middle  of  the  century,  for  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  French  thought,  the  idea  of  civil 
liberty  had  become  a  doctrine  of  political  theory;  the 
absence  of  civil  liberty  from  French  institutions  was 
pointed  out  with  increasing  vehemence.  By  the  close 
of  the  century,  this  demand  for  liberty  had  become  a 
bold  fight  in  the  name  of  a  *^  Natural  right ; "  it  had 
grown  gradually  into  the  glittering  fallacy  which  took 
liberty  out  of  the  sphere  of  government  and  made  it 
something  which  man  possessed  anterior  to  society. 

In  this  clamor  for  institutions  which  should  insure 
liberty  to  the  individual,  every  one  asks  for  liberty  of 
thought  and  speech,  but  there  are  different  ideas  as 
to  how  much  civil  and  political  liberty  will  best  secure 
such  intellectual  freedom.  There  are  in  these  opin- 
ions, as  usual,  two  extremes  and  a  mean.  Two  re- 
markable minds,  Montesquieu  and  Voltaire,  while  shar- 
ing to  a  degree  in  the  fallacies  of  the  time,  while  ac- 
cepting "  natural  law ''  as  the  basis  of  society,  yet  take 
a  different  view  in  regard  to  the  laws  of  society.  These 
laws,  whether  pertaining  to  liberty  or  to  other  less  fun- 
damental social  relations,  are  held  to  be  historical  and 

38  Comp.  e.  g.  the  works  of  Lesage  or  the  novels  and  dramas 
of  Marivaux, 


28  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.      > 

variable,  changing  as  men  grow  to  fuller  self-control 
and  greater  capacity  for  freedom.  The  state  is  always 
the  empirical  means  by  which  the  greatest  possible  lib- 
erty for  self-development  is  to  be  secured  to  each  indi- 
vidual. Liberty,  political  or  civil,  is,  under  this  con- 
ception, "the  power  to  do  that  which  the  laws  per- 
mit ^'  f^  it  is  a  great  good  toward  which  men  grow,  but 
a  possession  which  can  work  them  infinite  evil  if  they 
be  too  early  permitted  to  enjoy  it.  Of  the  two  extreme 
doctrines,  one  extreme  is  best  represented  by  the  Econo- 
mists. Starting  with  the  creed  that  laws  need  not  be 
made  by  the  government,  for  they  will  declare  them- 
selves if  given  any  chance,  they  ask  that  the  individual 
be  left  free  to  work  out  his  own  existence  in  his  own 
way.  The  state,  regarded  as  the  means  to  prevent  any 
single  individual  from  interfering  with  the  free  action 
of  his  neighbor,  is  preferably  to  be  a  strong  and  undi- 
vided force,  able  to  act  surely  and  swiftly  in  the  in- 
terests of  each  individual.  Thus  this  class  of  thinkers 
lays  great  stress  upon  civil  liberty  and  none  upon 
political  liberty.  The  other  extreme,  best  represented 
by  Eousseau  and  his  followers,  rests  all  hope  for  an 
equitable  relation  between  men  upon  unqualified  polit- 
ical liberty.  In  the  opinion  of  the  group  who  urged 
this  claim,  organized  association  starts  from  the  ra- 
tional act  of  each  member  of  society,  and  so,  in  striking 
contrast  to  the  idea  of  the  Economists,  the  theory  now 
runs  that  these  separate  wills  must  act  together  as  a 
collective  will  whenever  there  is  to  be  an  alteration  in 
the  form  of  government;  the  doctrine  of  government 

39  MoTitesquieu,  Esprit  ^es  Lpis,  Bk,  XI?  ch,  iii, 


INTELLECTUAL  LIBERTY,  29 

by  consent  of  the  governed  is  theoretically  proclaimed 
and  demonstrated.  The  collective  will  of  man  is  the 
power  and  the  only  power  that  justly  checks  the 
entire  freedom  of  the  individual.  Such  a  powerful 
light  is  made  to  play  upon  this  great  and  inalienable 
possession  of  each  individual,  this,  birthright  to  a  share 
in  the  social  control,  that  political  liberty  comes  to  have 
undue  prominence,  and  a  just  estimate  of  the  true 
balance  between  political  and  civil  liberty  does  not 
appear. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  representative 
demand  for  intellectual  freedom  was  that  made  by 
Voltaire.  For  Frangois  Marie  Arouet  de  Voltaire,  the 
mocker,  the  man  whom  succeeding  generations  have 
called  the  ^^  elect  of  God  "^^  or  proven  to  be  descended 
directly  from  his  satanic  majesty,*^  liberty  meant  first 
of  all  liberty  of  thought.  Voltaire  is  guilty  of  having 
put  into  the  great  mass  he  wrote,  much  matter  which 
shows  a  doubtful  comprehension  of  the  topic  he  had  in 
hand;  but  whether  it  was  philosophical  dictionary  or 
history,  scientific  essay,  novel  or  drama,  one  aggressive 
idea,  scorn  of  legal  or  social  trammels  to  thought,  pene- 
trated everything  he  wrote  and  made  it  important.  No 
fetters  to  thought  is  the  doctrine  which  pulses  through 
all  his  vibrant  French.  Blind  to  the  claims  of  the 
peasant,  Voltaire  was  emphatically  the  mouthpiece  and 
partisan  of  the  bourgeois.  Every  act  of  his  long  and 
world-faring  life,  as  the  best  work  of  his  pen,  gives  evi- 
dence of  this  narrowness  in  his  humanity.     Voltaire 

40  Laurent,  La  Revolution  frangaise,  I,  p.  264. 

41  Ibid,  I,  p.  8.    Laurent  cites  M.  de  Segur. 


30  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

likewise  taught  little  or  no  sense  of  social  responsibility; 
his  demand  for  intellectual  liberty  was,  on  the  whole, 
self -regarding.  Candide's  "  II  faut  cultiver  son  jardin  " 
does  not  phrase  the  principle  of  laisser  faire  dogmati- 
cally; but  it  conveys,  with  all  the  additional  force  of  a 
work  of  art,  the  same  "  let-alone  "  teaching.  It  is  also 
true  that  the  philosopher  of  Ferney  had  only  a  literary 
man's  perception  of  civil  liberty;  and  though  he  was  as 
deeply  impressed  with  the  value  of  such  liberty  as  the 
peculiar  character  of  his  mind  permitted  him  to  be 
impressed  with  anything  so  fundamental;  though  he 
saw  plainly  enough  the  value  of  the  English  security  of 
person  and  property  and  did  mucli  to  spread  that  appre- 
ciation of  it  which  formed  so  marked  a  part  of  later 
public  opinion;^  though  he  can  be  found  asking  that 
all  civil  laws,  even  the  marriage  laws,*^  be  secularized 
and  made  the  same  for  all,  yet  he  never  seriously 
pressed  the  subject  of  liberty,  civil  or  political,  beyond 
the  point  where  it  concerned  freedom  of  thought  and 
speech.  He  really  desired  liberty  only  in  so  far  as  it 
meant  immunity  from  systematic  repression  of  thought. 
He  was  above  all  possessed  with  this  one  idea  of  win- 
ning intellectual  liberty  for  France,  and  his  alternate 
sneering  and  upbraiding  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
made  an  effective  demand  for  anything  else.  But  just 
because  he  thus  narrowed  life  to  the  intellectual  life 
of  the  individual,  both  his  career  and  his  writings  ask 
for  intellectual  liberty  as  no  other  has  asked  for  it. 
Though  every  writer  of  the  century  included  in  his  de- 

42Comp.  Lettres  sur  les  Anglais. 

C  Dictionnaire  philosophique,  II,  68-70;  III,  625;  IV,  29. 


CIVIL  LIBERTY.  31 

mand  for  liberty  a  demand  for  intellectual  freedom, 
Voltaire  made  that  specific  plea  so  much  his  special 
aim  that  the  whole  movement  in  favor  of  it  is  summed 
up  in  the  work  of  his  facile  pen. 

The  rising  demand  for  civil  liberty  gets  its  best 
and  most  rational  expression  in  the  works  of  Mon- 
tesquieu. Civil  liberty  is  the  central  point  of  Mon- 
tesquieu's system;  from  it  he  starts  his  ideals;  by  it 
he  gauges  the  development  of  the  governments  he  stud- 
ies; toward  it  he  believes  that  all  governments  will  tend 
if  rightly  directed.  In  the  interests  of  a  civil  liberty 
for  which  he  holds  his  own  country  and  others  similarly 
advanced  to  be  fitted,  Montesquieu  attacks  dueling,** 
and  all  forms  of  slavery;*^  advocates  divorce*^  and  pro- 
nounces for  the  social  freedom  of  women.**^  Because 
this  most  dispassionate  among  the  representatives  of  the 
new  spirit  is  possessed  by  a  keen  appreciation  of  the 
necessity  of  civil  liberty,  he  classifies  as  tyrannies  all 
governments  which  hinder  freedom  of  person  or 
thought.*^  It  is  again  in  the  interests  of  this  same 
principle  that  Montesquieu  opposes  a  standing  army,*® 
interest,^^  and  a  public  debt  ^^  and  advocates  a  stable 
currency.^^     When  he  criticises  the  penal  laws'^^  and 

44  Lettres  Persanes,  LXI ;  also.  Esprit  des  Lois,  Bk.  XXVIII, 
ch.  xvi. 

45  Esprit  des  Lois,  Bk.  XV,  ch.  i. 

46  Lettres  Persanes,  XVI. 

47  Lettres  Persanes,  XXVIII ;  also,  Esprit  des  Lois,  Bk.  XVT, 
ch.  ii. 

48  Esprit  des  Lois,  Bk.  XIX,  ch.  lit. 

49  Ibid,  Bk.  XIII,  ch.  xvii. 
eo  Ibid,  Bk.  XXII,  ch.  xvi. 
ci  Ibid,  Bk.  XXII,  ch.  xvi. 

52  Ibid,  Bk.  XXII,  ch.  iii. 

53  Ibid,  Bk.  VI;    Bk.  XXIV,  ch.  xv;   also  Considerations, 

ch.   XT. 


32  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

the  current  methods  of  taxation,  recommending  instead 
a  progressive  tax  and  stringent  sumptuary  laws;^* 
when  he  deprecates  laws  of  primogeniture^^  or  admits 
that  inheritance  has  only  a  legal,  not  a  moral  sanction/^ 
he  has  always  in  view  a  hetter  and  more  real  civil 
liherty.  In  truth  Montesquieu's  epoch-making  work 
taught  little  that  did  not  accent  the  value  of  civil  lib- 
erty^^  as  the  direct  cause  of  social  growth  and  the 
means  to  permanent  national  happiness. 

In  the  doctrine  of  Montesquieu,  there  was  a  reser- 
vation in  regard  to  civil  liberty.  Not  all  nations  were 
fit  for  it;  it  was  not  certain  that  all  men  had  once  had 
civil  liberty  or  must  always  have  it  in  order  to  insure 
their  best  happiness.  Montesquieu  taught  civil  liberty 
with  qualifications  that  favored  gradual  development  to- 
ward it;  a  school  followed  him  which  preached  it  without 
any  reservations.  In  the  second  half  of  the  century, 
the  doctrine  of  civil  liberty  finally  assumed  the  unquali- 
fied form  where  it  is  asserted  that  civil  liberty  is  an 
indispensable  necessity  for  men  in  all  ages  and  in  all 
positions  of  life. 

It  will  be  remembered  how  the  social  philosophy 

04  Esprit  des  Lois,  Bk.  VIII,  ch.  vii. 

55  Lettres  Persanes,  CXIX. 

56  Esprit  des  Lois,  Bk.  XXVI,  ch.  vi. 

57  Montesquieu's  careful  elaboration  of  the  English  Constitu- 
tion aimed  to  show  that  the  most  real  liberty  yet  achieved  by 
modern  Europeans  was,  probably,  to  be  brought  about  by  dis- 
tributing partly  elective  and  partly  hereditary  powers  after 
the  manner  of  the  English  government,  but  he  does  not  set  up 
the  government  of  England  nor  that  of  any  other  country  as  a 
model.  Here,  too,  his  chief  object  is  to  show  the  relative  su- 
periority of  a  government  which  secures  civil  liberty  to  its 
subjects. 


POLITICAL  LIBERTY.  33 

of  the  Economists  led  them  to  deduce  this  idea  of  civil 
liberty.  In  explaining  their  doctrine  of  what  hap- 
piness was  and  how  it  was  to  be  secured,  it  was  shown 
how  they  believed  that  all  social  well-being  was  finally 
conditioned  by  an  entire  government  recognition  of 
the  principle  of  civil  liberty.  Their  theory,  unlike  that 
of  Voltaire  or  Montesquieu,  argues,  not  the  expediency, 
but  the  Justice  of  civil  liberty,  and  bases  the  claim  upon 
'^  Natural  Law  '\  readily  discernible  if  the  trustworthy 
instincts  inherent  in  each  individual  be  regarded.  The 
doctrine  of  N^atural  Rights  follows  from  this  claim,  and 
the  doctrine  of  Natural  Eights  is  only  an  unqualified 
demand  for  complete  civil  and  industrial  freedom. 
This  is  the  conception  of  liberty  which  asks  that  the 
state  remain  only  the  watchman,  the  arbiter.  Al- 
though most  of  those  who  are  of  this  way  of  thinking 
believe  in  enlightened  despotism,  the  sole  purpose  for 
which  they  would  put  a  despot  in  charge  of  the  na- 
tion is  to  secure  certain  and  stable  liberty  to  each 
individual.  This  type  of  contention  in  the  name  of 
liberty  was  really  part  of  a  contention  in  favor  of  free 
production;  since  civil  liberty  was  an  additional  meana 
to  aid  a  better  output  of  national  wealth,  therefore 
it  was  held  valuable  as  a  means  to  social  progress.  By 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  this  doctrine  had 
developed  numerous  and  well-defined  statements  to 
prove  that  entire  civil  liberty  was  the  sine  qua  non  for 
individual  and  social  happiness,  and  so  the  inherent 
right  of  every  member  of  the  community. 

The   dictum  that   every   individual   had   an   inher- 
ent right  to  say  how  and  by  whom  he  should  be  ruled 

3 


34  PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

grew  up  more  slowly  in  France  than  the  doctrine  of 
civil  rights,  but  it  none  the  less  gathered  force  as  the 
eighteenth  century  progressed.  A  careful  reading  of 
the  most  important  claims  for  it,  makes  it  evident  that 
not  even  Kousseau,  who  gave  it  most  place  in  his  writ- 
ings and  dangled  its  charms  in  most  attractive  guise 
before  men's  minds, —  not  even  Rousseau  held  the  doc- 
trine to  l)e  universally  and  immediately  practicable.'^ 
As  a  theory,  however,  certain  men^^  during  the  cen- 
tury present  entire  political  liberty  as  the  end  and 
means  to  all  successful  association  of  men.  Put  for- 
ward in  an  uncertain  way  from  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  the  idea  culminates  in  its  most  forceful  form 
in  the  "  Contrat  Social "  of  Rousseau.  Many  writers, 
as  for  instance,  Meslier,  Morelly  or  Mably,  asserted, 
without  very  much  attempt  at  proof,  that  each  member 
of  the  community  has  rightfully  a  share  in  the  con- 
trol of  the  polity  of  the  community.  Rousseau  aims  to 
prove  this  assertion.  It  was  Rousseau  who  made  it 
current  doctrine  that  every  individual,  by  the  fact  of 
being  a  part  of  the  association,  was  a  part  of  the  source 
of  power,  and  that  therefore  political  liberty  was  his  in- 
herent and  eternal  right. 

Rousseau's  theory  of  an  original  social  contract,^ 
which  was  believed  to  be  a  demonstration  of  this  prin- 
ciple, is  too  well  known  to  need  more  than  briefest 

58Comp.  Contrat  Social,  ch.  iii-v. 

59  Meslier,  D'Argenson,  Mably  and  Rousseau.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  a  man  of  the  world  like  D'Argenson  belongs 
more  nearly  to  this  group  than  to  any  other.  Comp.  Con- 
siderations sur  le  gouvernement  de  France. 

60  It  is,  of  course,  recognized  that  Rousseau's  theory  of  a 
social  contract  is  little  more  than  an  interpretation  of  Hobbes 
and  Locke,  but  Rousseau  gave  it  to  France  aa  England  had 


POLITICAL  LIBERTY.  35 

statement.  According  to  the  terms  of  this  doctrine, 
society  derives  from  the  free  will  of  each  individual 
who  entered  into  a  primitive  contract.^^  This  con- 
tract, consciously  made  by  each  and  every  one  of  the 
several  parties  to  it,  created  society.  By  that  con- 
tract, each  individual  became  sovereign  as  well  as  sub- 
ject.^^  Thus  political  liberty  was  the  very  base  of 
all  association,  the  only  inalienable,  imprescriptible 
right.  The  very  terms  of  the  contract  involved  a  cer- 
tain surrender  of  a  part  of  all  the  other  natural  rights.^^ 
Liberty  of  person  and  of  thought,  the  rights  of  equality 
and  property,  became  in  a  way  gifts  of  the  collective 
will.  What  Eousseau  adopts  as  a  principle  is,  after  all, 
the  doctrine  of  the  despotism  of  the  majority;  but  in 
planning  for  this  rule  of  the  majority,  he  does  not 
deny  true  political  liberty  to  each  member  of  society. 
The  opinion  of  every  one  of  the  separate  persons  who 
together  form  a  community  must,  in  justice  and  reason, 
says  the  doctrine,  go  to  make  up  the  collective  will, 
even  though  all  these  opinions  cannot  prevail. 

All  the  communistic  writers,  then,  and  the  volcanic 
rhetoric  of  Eousseau  most  of  all,  treated  political  lib- 
erty as  the  first  axiom  of  political  theory.  Human 
association  connoted  it;  any  institution  that  imperiled 

given  it  to  him.  See  the  interesting  outline  of  the  history  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  social  contract  in  Morley,  Rousseau,  II, 
pp.  146-148,  ed.  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1888. 

61  Contrat  Social,  Bk.  I,  ch.  v. 

62  "A  I'instant,  au  lieu  de  la  personne  particuli^re  de  chaque 
contractant,  cet  acte  d'association  produit  un  corps  moral  et 
collectif,"  etc.    Contrat  Social,  Bk.  I,  ch.  vi. 

63  Contrat  Social,  Bk.  T,  ch.  ix.  "  Car  I'^tat  il  I'^gard  de  sea 
membres  est  mattre,"  etc.  It  is  always  to  be  remembered  that 
Rousseau,  unlike  many  of  his  disciples,  regarded  democracy  as 
an  ideal  form  of  government.  Cf.  Contrat  Social,  Bk.  Ill,  ch. 
iy. 


36  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

it  by  so  doing  vitiated  the  whole  social  structure;  it 
was  the  mainspring  to  the  happiness  and  development 
of  man.  The  conception  might  and  generally  did  go 
along  with  notions  directly  contrary  to  any  real  civil 
liberty,^*  and  so  the  sum  of  this  theory  set  the  pyramid 
upon  its  apex.  But  the  doctrine  of  political  liberty,  as 
a  right,  was  none  the  less  definitely  proclaimed. 

These  men  were  the  only  absolute  adherents  of  the 
doctrine  of  unreserved  political  liberty.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  state  that  the  Economists  had  no  sym- 
pathy with  political  liberty.  Clearly  as  they  saw  the 
need  of  civil  liberty,  it  is  doubtful  if  any  of  the  Physio- 
crats attached  any  particular  value  to  the  right  of  suf- 
frage. For  those  of  them  who  favored  an  enlightened 
despotism,  even  the  conception  of  political  liberty  was 
distasteful.  Likewise,  this  notion  of  an  indivisible, 
imprescriptible  sovereignty  primevally  residing  in  each 
individual,  and  so  entitling  him  to  political  liberty,  was 

64  Rousaeau,  the  sentimentalist,  undoubtedly  sets  great  store 
by  the  freedom  of  the  individual;  Rousseau  the  political 
theorist  almost  loses  sight  of  it  in  his  enthusiasm  for  the 
rights  of  the  whole  body  politic.  It  is  true  that  in  his 
"  Emile,"  and  in  the  "  Nouvelle  H6loise  "  Rousseau  makes  the 
individual  and  his  development  the  supreme  fact  of  existence, 
and  counts  a  certain  isolation  from  society  as  of  first  im- 
portance to  the  child,  in  order  that  he  may  develop  that  in- 
dividuality so  desirable  in  the  man;  it  is  true,  he  often  infers 
even  where  he  does  not  state,  that  kind  of  civil  liberty  which 
means  the  individual's  right  to  immunity  from  interference 
with  his  personal  affairs.  But  the  most  characteristic  and  in- 
fluential part  of  Rousseau's  writings  puts  so  much  accent  upon 
political  liberty  that  the  sum  of  his  teaching  comes  danger- 
ously near  to  sacrificing  the  civil  rights  to  the  political  right. 
Of  Morelly,  this  is  true  without  qualification.  (See  e.  g.,  such 
regulations  as  would  make  each  citizen  "  homm«  public  "  and 
force  him  to  contribute  to  the  general  needs.  Code  de  la 
Nature,  especially  pp.  188-190.) 


EQUALITY  AND  PROPERTY.  37 

no  part  of  the  doctrine  of  Montesquieu  and  Voltaire. 
In  the  theory  of  each  of  these  men,  the  whole 
nation  was  not  necessarily  or  even  preferably  the  state. 
It  is  doubtful  if  either  writer  thought  that  complete 
political  liberty  was  even  the  end  of  all  political  prog- 
ress. Montesquieu  was  by  no  means  an  enthusiast  for 
democracy;  on  the  contrary,  he  had  a  wholesome  ap- 
preciation of  the  superior  intelligence  of  the  minority. 
General  and  unreserved  political  liberty  he  deprecated 
in  any  but  small  governments,  where  the  laws  aimed 
at  mediocrity  and  conservatism.  The  same  is  true  of 
Voltaire.  With  no  particular  sympathy  for  the  masses, 
but  rather  a  great  impatience  for  the  idea  of  intrust- 
ing any  political  power  to  them,  Voltaire  naturally  be- 
lieved that  the  "vulgar"  had  small  capacity  for  in- 
tellectual or  political  usefulness.  The  "Lettres  sur 
les  Anglais "  or  the  "  Idees  Eepublicains "  best  bear 
witness  that  he  shared  the  ideas  of  Montesquieu.  It 
was  then  Rousseau  and  the  group  who  followed  him, 
vrho  sent  abroad  the  theory  of  unreserved  political 
rights.  The  doctrine  that  the  state  and  the  nation 
are  one,  the  doctrine  that  became  so  great  a  power  in 
shaping  opinion  at  the  end  of  the  century  because 
men  who  had  been  accustomed  to  give  much  respon- 
sibility to  the  state  now  aimed  to  give  the  will  of  the 
majority  a  like  absolute  power  in  guiding  the  creeds  and 
acts  of  every  individual, —  this  doctrine  must  be  chiefly 
attributed  to  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau. 

IV. 

Among  the  theories  which  gained  ground  during  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  idea  of  equalrty  follows  in 


38  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

popularity  upon  the  principle  of  liberty.  Inequality 
of  condition  early  came  to  be  regarded  by  certain  think- 
ers as  the  root  cause  of  social  evils.  The  "  poor  eigh- 
teenth century"  had  not  learned,  as  the  merest  be- 
ginner has  learned  to-day,  to  look  upon  social  prob- 
lems as  relative  to  particular  variations  of  race  and  tra- 
dition. Most  men  sought  out  one  series  of  social  facts 
and  gave  them  undue  prominence.  Since  the  glaring 
inequality  of  rank  and  opportunity  was  probably  the 
fact  most  striking  to  one  who  superficially  observed 
the  eighteenth  century  French  life,  many  persons  set- 
tled upon  these  inequalities  as  the  real  impediments  to 
a  vigorous  national  life.  Although  only  a  minority 
felt  that  equality  was  anything  beyond  an  ideal,  al- 
most every  speculative  thinker  of  the  time  lent  a  more 
or  less  ready  ear  to  the  notion  that  equality  of  rights 
and  possession  was  perhaps  the  only  way  to  secure 
the  social  fabric  against  unhappiness  and  degradation. 
Majority  opinion  agreed  that  equality  would  be  most 
desirable  in  the  relations  between  men;  it  differed  only 
as  to  the  possibility  of  finding  any  social  arrangement 
which  could  maintain  such  a  relation.  The  general 
theory  of  the  time  sums  up  in  the  assertion  that  in  a 
far-distant  past,  men  had  been  capable  of  the  life  and 
social  relation  necessary  for  equality,  but  that  the  long- 
continued  period  during  which  he  had  been  ruled  by 
false  theories  and  vicious  laws  had  so  warped  his  na- 
ture that  he  was  no  longer  fit  for  it.  Many  of  the 
writers  of  the  century  roused  a  passion  for  equality  by 
putting  a  new  ideal  before  men's  eyes,  rather  than  by 
any  active  claim  they  made  to  have  equality  set  up 


IDEALS  OF  EQUALITY.  39 

in  the  relations  of  modern  life.  A  single  writer  and 
his  satellites  gave  the  idea  most  force,  first  by  implant- 
ing in  many  minds  a  deep  hatred  of  such  social  dis- 
tinctions as  were  based  on  birth  or  holding,  and  then 
by  teaching  the  proud  self-respect  which  is  the  first  es- 
sential for  any  active  belief  in  equality. 

The  reasons  for  the  general  prejudice  of  the  cen- 
tury in  favor  of  the  ideal  of  equality  are  easily  trace- 
able. In  addition  to  the  conditions  of  the  national 
life  which  will  need  a  special  discussion,  certain  special 
influences  tended  at  this  time  to  make  the  idea  of 
equality  seem  particularly  attractive  as  a  remedial 
measure.  It  will  be  remembered  that,  at  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  missionaries  began  to  return  to  France 
from  the  far  East  and  the  new  West,  and  that 
they  brought  with  them  the  usual  enthusiasm  of 
the  pioneer  for  the  life  he  has  been  able  to  lead 
in  a  new  country.  The  tales  these  men  told  filled  the 
many  who  heard  them  with  a  romantic  enthusiasm  for 
the  peace  and  simplicity  of  the  primitive  life.  The 
literature,  more  particularly  the  romance  and  drama  of 
the  time,  took  up  this  dream  of  pastoral  life  with  its 
simple  equality ;  the  "  bon  sauvage ''  became  the  pet 
ideal  in  the  fiction  of  the  century.  Most  of  the  imag- 
inative writings  delighted  to  depict  his  contentment 
in  his  native  wilds  or  to  bring  the  simple  child  of  na- 
ture to  Europe  by  some  fortuitous  circumstance,  and 
there,  introducing  him  into  the  society  of  the  time, 
to  point  the  contrast  between  his  artless  truth  and 
simple  tastes  and  the  prejudices,  insincerities  and  lux- 


40  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

urious  tendencies  of  the  times.  It  is  interesting  to 
remember  that  this  admiration  for  simplicity  and  frank- 
ness really  crept  into  sentiments  and  manners  even  be- 
fore the  Ee volution  came  to  force  the  feeling  in  fa\ror 
of  equality  over  the  line  which  separates  rhetorical  en- 
thusiasm from  practical  application.  The  accredited 
method  of  reasoning  supplemented  the  stimulus  to  the 
belief  in  equality  given  by  these  tales  of  travel  and  the 
romances.  When,  as  was  the  way  of  this  new  method, 
men  were  considered  as  so  many  similar  beings,  the 
natural  man,  who  was  thus  evolved,  was  a  powerful 
argument  for  the  ideal  of  equality.  When,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  paradisial  conception  began  to  lose  its 
force;  when  the  idea  of  a  state  of  nature  replaced  the 
idea  of  Paradise  and  an  eternal  fall  on  account  of  divine 
chastisement  was  discredited  in  favor  of  a  fall  caused 
by  the  wrong  route  that  men  had  chosen,  the  feeling 
became  general  that  inequality  was  the  chief  plague 
resulting  from'  man's  failure  to  discover  how  to  con- 
duct a  commonwealth.  When  society,  using  the  word 
in  its  narrower  sense,  was  arraigned,  when  forms  and 
ceremonies  as  well  as  institutions  were  held  to  hinder 
all  Nature's  intentions  by  training  men  in  a  stupid  imi- 
tation, one  of  the  other  and  making  them  mere  "ma- 
chines who  do  not  think  at  all,"^  then,  by  such  a 
theory,  the  ultimate  equality  of  all  men  was  at  least 
implied.  To  account,  then,  for  the  general  tolerance 
of  the  conception  of  equality  and  the  conspicuous  ten- 
dency to  give  the  idea  logical  completeness  in  a  com- 
monwealth which  rested  upon  the  principle,  it  seems 

66Jiou8seau,  La  Nouvelle  H^lolse,  Lettre  XVI, 


DOCTRINES  OF  EQUALITY.  4l 

only  necessary  to  remember  that,  along  with  the  grow- 
ing comprehension  of  the  rottenness  and  weakness  of 
the  government  and  the  love  of  abstract  reasoning,  a 
newly-developed  love  of  nature  had  caught  speculative 
minds. 

But  to  believe  in  equality  as  an  ideal  is  not  neces- 
sarily to  advocate  its  immediate  adoption  as  a  prin- 
ciple of  government.  It  does  not  follow  that  there  was 
a  general  demand  for  laws  which  should  establish  equal- 
ity because  there  are  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  the 
century  plenty  of  isolated  phrases  by  which  it  would 
be  possible  to  class  many  of  those  who  were  contrib- 
uting toward  the  new  way  of  thinking  as  adherents  of 
an  absolute  equality  of  rank  and  possession.  Because 
even  Montesquieu,  most  conservative  of  the  advanced 
thinkers,  may  be  shown  to  have  pointed  the  value  of 
communism,^^  it  is  not  to  be  argued  that  he  advocated 
it  as  an  applied  form  of  government.  When  he 
spoke  in  favor  of  such  a  social  order,  he  was 
careful  to  point  out  at  the  same  time  that  it  could 
properly  exist  only  when  other  facts  of  social  develop- 
ment were  in  harmony  with  this  form  of  association. 
For  him,  as  for  most  of  his  contemporaries,  equality 
was  a  golden  dream  rather  than  a  possibility.  After 
all,  only  two  among  the  writers  of  the  time,  only  Mes- 
lier  and  Morelly,  can  safely  be  said  to  have  believed 
without  qualification  in  a  social  regime  where  strict 
equality  was  the  fundamental  principle  of  legislation.^ 

66  Considerations  sur  la  Grandeur,  etc.,  ch.  iv. 

67Comp.  Meslier,  Testament,  II,  p.  210;  also  III,  p.  387. 
Morelly's  entire  plan  for  a  commonwealth  rests  upon  the  idea 
of  absolute  equality.  See  such  passages  as  those  which,  in 
"  Code  de  la  Nature,"  arran^re  for  the  distribution  of  political 
power  and  of  labor.    Code  de  la  Nature,  pp.  188-193. 


42  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

The  others  sang  a  sort  of  requiem  to  an  equality  long 
since  vanished,  and  aimed  to  teach  resignation  to  the 
inevitable  lack  of  this  much-to-be-desired  social  rela- 
tion. 

The  Economists,  for  instance,  took  small  account 
of  equality,  except  such  as  they  believed  would  result 
from  a  freed  industry.  The  modern  clamor  about 
"  inequality  of  opportunity  "  would  have  expressed  their 
demand  very  well,  except  that  they  interpreted  the 
phrase  in  an  opposite  sense.  Exactly  that  which  mod- 
ern radicalism  holds  to  be  most  at  variance  with  equal- 
ity of  opportunity,  that  is,  complete  freedom  in  the 
industrial  domain,  the  Economists  felt  to  be  the  only 
real  means  for  securing  a  just  and  desirable  equality. 
Such  equality  of  opportunity  as  they  believed  in  and 
aimed  at,  they  thought  might  be  secured  through  laws 
maintaining  the  inviolability  of  private  property,  a 
proportional  tax  and  complete  liberty  in  the  national 
industrial  and  commercial  life.  Mably  believed  equal- 
ity to  be  the  key  to  social  content  ;^^  but,  with  mild 
pessimism,  he  declared  it  was  hopeless  to  try  to  main- 
tain it  after  primitive  conditions  had  disappeared. 
Equality,  he  said,  is  the  ideal,  but  it  is  neither  possible 
nor  expedient  to  make  it  a  part  of  social  institutions. 
"No   human   power   can   to-day   re-establish   equality 

68  Mably,  Entretien  de  Phocion,  X,  p.  143.  There  are  many 
passages  where  equality  is  championed  with  as  little  qualifica- 
tion as  in  the  following:  "  L'egalit^  doit  produire  tous  les 
biens,  parceque,  elle  unit  les  hommes,  leur  6l&ve  I'ame  et  lea 
prepare  a  des  sentiments  mutuels  de  bienveillance  et  d'amiti6; 
j'en  eonclus  que  I'inegalite  produit  tous  les  maux,  parcequ'elle 
les  degrade,  les  humilie  et  seme  entre  eux  la  division  et  la 
haine."  Legislation,  t.  I,  p.  50;  also  pp.  49  and  67.  (Cited  in 
Lichtenberger,  op.  cit.,  p.  227.) 


DOCTRINES   OF  EQUALITY.  43 

without  causing  greater  disorders  than  those  it  desires 
to  avoid."^^  Voltaire  and  the  Encyclopedists  treat  the 
matter  with  even  less  reverence.  Holding  that  hap- 
piness is  independent  of  status  or  possession,  they  see 
no  connection  between  equality  and  social  well-being. 
Voltaire  took  his  turn  at  depicting  the  beauties  of 
simple  life  and  equality  ;'^^  but  his  most  positive  writings 
always  accent,  in  definite  terms,  those  necessary  differ- 
ences in  men  from  which  social  inequalities  must  and 
should  follow.*^^  He  even  goes  so  far  as  to  state  that 
not  only  inequalities,  but  inequalities  on  the  basis  of 
property-holding,  are  inevitable.  "  It  is  impossible  in 
our  unhappy  societies,'^  he  says,  "that  men  living  in 
society  should  be  divided  into  two  classes,  the  one  rich 
to  command,  the  other  poor  to  serve."'''-  Diderot,  like 
the  rest,  let  his  imagination  dwell  upon  the  charms  of 
primitive  life;"^^  but  his  judgment,  otherwise  so 
changeable  in  matters  pertaining  to  social  institutions, 
seems  to  have  been  always  consistent  on  this  point  of 
equality.  He  too,  admits  a  necessary  inequality  in  men 
associated  together;  social  classes,  he  says,  are  neces- 
sary, but  need  not  be  based  upon  possession;  l6t  the 
antagonism,  if  there  must  be  one,  be  at  least  a  competi- 
tion of  intellects.'^* 


69Doutes  adress6    ♦     ♦    *    aux  Economiates,  p.  74. 

70  For  example  in  "  L'lng^nue." 

71  Essai  sur  les  Moeurs,  ch.  xcviii. 

72  Disoours  sur  rhomme,  VII. 

73  See  e.  g.,  "  Court  essai  sur  le  caractdre  de  I'homme  sau- 
vage."  (Euvres.  Vol.  VI,  p.  450 ;  also  Supplement  au  Voyage 
de  M.  de  Bougainville.     Vol.  II,  p.  193. 

74  Comp.  articles  on  Homme,  Laboureur,  HOpital,  Luxe,  ilk 
Encyclop^die,  (Euvres,  Vols.  XIV,  XV,  XVI. 


44  PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

In  connection  with  the  influences  which  made  for 
new  ideals,  Eousseau's  doctrine  of  equality  needs  special 
discussion.  The  great  sentimentalist  was  so  full  of  con- 
tradictions that,  according  to  the  part  of  his  work  which 
is  consulted,  he  can  be  shown  to  have  supported  or 
deprecated  the  idea  of  equality.  Even  if  his  discourse 
on  the  origin  of  inequality  be  omitted,'^^  there  still  re- 
main many  passages  in  Eousseau's  imaginative  writ- 
ings'^^  and  in  the  more  mature  political  works,  which 
aim  to  show  that  equality  of  the  Spartan  kind  was 
after  all  the  only  certain  means  to  a  stable  and  real  so- 
cial happiness.'^'^  On  the  other  hand,  v/e  find  him  recog- 
nizing the  desirability  of  classes*^^  and  asserting  that 
a  government  in  which  social  status  was  not  fixed  was 
one  of  questionable  stability.'''^-  One  who  provokingly 
changes  his  point  of  view  in  all  matters  of  applied 
politics;  one  who  is  consistent  only  in  his  sympathy 
for  the  poor,  his  scorn  of  the  luxurious  and  artificial 
social  life  he  saw  about  him,  in  his  firm  belief  in  the 
social  contract  and  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  can 
scarcely  be  expected  to  hold  to  a  fixed  doctrine  regard- 

75  The  "  Discours  "  might  be  neglected  in  a  study  of  Rousseau 
the  political  theorist,  since  it  might,  with  some  justice,  be  urged 
that  the  essay  was  only  a  tour  de  force,  undertaken  in  a  spirit 
of  paradox  rather  than  an  expression  of  Rousseau's  positive 
doctrine. 

76  See  e.  g.  Nouvelle  IT^loTse,  II,  Lettres  XVI.  XXI. 

77  Comp.  Discours  sur  L'Economie  politique,"  (Euvres,  I,  p. 
303.  "  Si  les  enfants  sont  6lev§s  en  commun  dans  le  sein  de 
l'#galit6,"  etc. 

78  See  Nouvelle  H^lolse.  This  book,  among  other  lessons, 
strives  to  show  the  place  and  the  use  of  the  right-minded  man 
of  wealth.     See  in  particular,  Lettre  X. 

79  Econ.  pol..  Vol.  I,  p.  309.  "  Rien  n'est  plus  funeste  aux 
moeurs  et  k  la  rgpublique,  que  les  changements  continuelg 
d'etat  et  de  fortune  entre  les  citoyens,"  etc. 


DOCTRINES   OF  EQUALITt.  45 

ing  the  largely  emotional  question  of  equality.  It  is 
not  then  surprising  that,  according  to  the  temper  in 
which  Eousseau  is  approached,  one  may  find  the  prin- 
ciples that  make  for  either  an  individualistic  or  a  com- 
nmnistic  commonwealth.^^  Perhaps  it  is  fairest  to  say 
that  it  is  on  the  whole  doubtful  whether  Eousseau  him- 
self was  ever  quite  clear  as  to  the  kind  of  equality  a 
right-thinking  majority  ought  to  make  public  law. 

Yet  even  though  Eousseau's  own  point  of  view  in 
regard  to  equality  is  open  to  question,  the  general 
tenor  of  his  best-known  works  undoubtedly  made  for 
one  kind  of  sentiment.^^  Though  Eousseau  advocated 
equality  with  far  less  precision  or  conviction  than 
Morelly  or  even  Mably,  he  put  into  men's  minds  a 
sensitiveness  with  regard  to  the  rights  of  others,  gave 
them  ideals  of  simplicity  of  life  and  of  self-respect, 
which  almost  of  necessity  developed  in  them  a  feeling 
concerning  social  and  political  equality  that  he  him^ 
self  never  insisted  upon  without  qualification.  Few 
can  read  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  as  he  explained 
it,  or  of  a  purely  democratic  government  as  he  outlined 
it,  without  unconsciously  adopting  convictions  in  favor 
of  equality.  The  great  stress  he  lays  upon  the  sanctity 
of  the  rights  of  the  individual  is  only  a  fiirm  belief  in 

80  It  is  easily  proven  that  the  teachings  of  Rousseau  had 
this  dual  effect,  and  that  the  fiercest  advocates  of  indi- 
vidual liberty  which  means  equality  in  the  political  order  only 
( such  e.  g.  as  Madame  de  Stael  or  any  of  the  "  doctrinaires  " ) 
were  as  much  the  ardent  disciples  of  Rousseau  as  those  who, 
like  Louis  Blanc,  hold  that  his  teachings  warrant  serious  in- 
roads upon  the  individual  freedom  in  the  name  of  a  general 
right  to  equality. 

81  Contrat  Social,  Bk.  II,  ch.  xi. 


46  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

equality,  social  and  political,  expressed  in  an  indirect 
way.  In  short,  it  might  be  said  that  Eousseau,  more 
than  any  other,  stirred  in  each  man  who  read  him 
those  sentiments  which  predispose  to  sympathy  with  the 
idea  of  equality.  The  strong  disposition  in  favor  of 
equality  which  played  so  prominent  a  part  in  the  doc- 
trine of  the-  Eevolution,  undoubtedly  drew  some  of  its 
inspiration  from  the  feeling  of  contempt  and  outraged 
justice  which  the  arbitrary  and  selfish  government  stead- 
ily fanned  into  open  revolt.  Men  begin  to  feel  them- 
selves equal  to  those  who  are  supposed  to  be  above  them 
when  they  have  learned  to  despise  them.  But  the  feel- 
ing that  later  expressed  itself  in  the  declaration  that 
"  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal "  was  developed  quite 
as  much  by  the  fervid,  if  sentimental,  humanity  of  Rous- 
seau as  by  the  political  facts  of  the  time. 

Before  closing  this  brief  review  of  the  leading 
principles  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  word  seems  de- 
sirable as  to  the  views  of  the  time  regarding  the  institu- 
tion of  property. 

The  eighteenth-century  doctrine  of  property  falls 
into  about  the  same  general  classes  as  the  views  on  lib- 
erty and  equality.  There  are  the  orthodox,  the  liberal 
and  the  iconoclastic  theories  to  be  reckoned  with.  The 
first  may  be  quickly  dismissed.  It  is  enough  to  recall 
the  fact  that,  at  the  time  in  question,  orthodox  opinion 
held  that  the  state  was  possessor  under  a  polity  where 
the  king  alone  was  the  state. 

Liberal  thought  of  the  period  made  no  serious  at- 
tack upon  this  theory.  Those  whom  our  age  is  wont 
to   consider  the   chief  reformers   of  the   time,   Mon- 


THEORIES  OF  PROPERTY.  47 

tesquieu,  Voltaire  and  the  Encyclopedists,  made  no 
attack  upon  the  received  doctrine  of  property.  Mon- 
tesquieu^^  and  Voltaire^^  held  property  to  be  a  legal 
right,  and  only  asked  that  the  ruling  powers  respect 
the  privilege  they  themselves  had  given  to  their  sub- 
jects. None  of  the  Encyclopedists  will,  I  think,  be 
found  to  have  doubted  the  necessity  of  private  property 
as  a  fundamental  social  institution.  As  has  been  re- 
peated too  often  perhaps,  these  Encyclopedists  made 
no  attack  upon  any  of  the  received  political  institu- 
tions of  their  time.  It  was  absolutism,  obscurantism 
and  formalism  that  they  opposed;  they  never  came  near 
enough  to  reality  to  trace  any  connection  between  the 
false  prejudices  they  hated  and  the  fundamental  po- 
litical institutions  of  the  society  they  knew.  The  whole 
tendency  of  their  teaching  was  to  give  prominence  to  the 
individual  and  to  his  right  to  think  and  act  as  he 
pleased,  and  whatever  political  influence  they  exerted 
was  therefore  in  favor  of  an  individualistic  system  where 
the  property-right  rested  on  law  made  by  a  beneficent 
sovereign. 

During  the  century,  two  important  theories  oppose 
themselves  to  this  conservative  doctrine.  On  the  one 
hand,  there  was  a  strong  and  important  group  that 
claimed  the  property-right  as  an  inherent  individual 
right  and  held  that  the  recognition  of  this  right  by  the 
state  conditioned  the  effectiveness  of  each  member  of 


82  For  example,  see  Esprit  des  Lois,  Bk.  XXVI,  ch.  v. 

83  Compare    among    other    examples,    Dictionnaire   philoso- 
phique,  art.  Propriety,  Vol.  54,  ed.  1785. 


P.RY 


CAl.V-' 


vjhW^' 


48  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

society;  under  this  theory,  the  state  was  the  guarantor 
of  the  property-right.  On  the  other  hand,  there  devel- 
oped an  uncertain  doctrine  which  continued  to  think 
of  property  as  a  possession  of  the  state,  but  state  in 
most  cases,  no  longer  meant  a  monarch;  it  meant  the 
whole  nation.  This  theory  looked  upon  private  prop- 
erty as  a  somewhat  regrettable  but  probably  inevitable 
adjunct  to  each  individual  life. 

The  Physiocrats  are  of  course  the  representatives  of 
the  first  group.  In  their  idea,  property  was  a  "  natural 
right."  Without  property,  liberty  they  said,  was  an 
illusion.  Property  was  the  cause  of  all  positive  law 
and  the  root  of  all  progress.  The  whole  duty  of  the 
ruler  who  constituted  the  state  was  to  secure  each  in- 
dividual in  the  peaceful  possession  of  whatever  he  could 
win  by  his  own  effort.  The  greater  the  number  of 
property-holders,  the  more  real  and  general  was  the 
national  prosperity  likely  to  be.  They  agreed  with 
Montesquieu  and  Voltaire  that  individual  property  was 
the  basis  of  a  successful  national  life,  and  that  to  secure 
the  absolute  sanctity  of  the  right  was  the  first  means 
to  establish  an  effective  and  stable  government;  they 
differed  from  both  in  that  they  made  the  right  to  prop- 
erty a  natural  not  a  legal  right. 

On  the  other  hand,  evidences  of  an  intention  to  dis- 
pute the  accepted  laws  concerning  property  are  to  be 
found  from  the  beginning  of  the  century.  Meslier, 
probably  because  he  had  been  bred  in  the  old  teaching 
which  took  property  to  be  a  purely  legal  right  and 
the  king  the  sole  legal  possessor,  urged  that  the  best 
remedy  for  the  undue  and  inequitable  exercise  of  rights 


THEORIES  OF  PROPERTY.  49 

in  property  would  be  found  in  transferring  all  such 
rights  to  the  commonwealth.^  D'Argenson  declared 
that^  the  key  to  all  social  disorders  was  the  unequal 
holding  of  property,  and  said  plainly  that  the  only  way 
to  remedy  the  matter  was  to  put  the  lands  at  the  dis- 
posal of  those  who  cultivated  them;  he  even  specifically 
attacked  productive  property  in  the  hands  of  private 
persons,  and  suggested  that  the  lands  of  the  wealthy 
be  brought  together  and  put  at  the  disposal  of  the 
nation.^  A  prejudice  against  individual  ownership 
of  land  runs  through  a  great  part  of  the  literature  of 
the  second  half  of  the  century.  The  usual  attitude  is 
not  so  much  communistic  or  socialistic  as  merely  nega- 
tive of  the  private  property-right.^^  Leaders  of  opinion, 
however,  were  divided  between  the  ideal  of  communistic 
holding  and  that  of  state  control.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 
no  one  of  the  more  important  of  the  later  writers  who 
desired  communism  of  some  kind,  neither  Morelly^ 

84  Testament,  III,  p.  387. 

85 "  Le  mot  de  T^nigme  de  nos  maux  est  la  propriety  des 
fonds,  d'oil  est  venu  Tavarice,"  ed.  D'Argenson,  Vol.  V,  p.  139. 
(Cited  in  Lichtenberger,  op.  cit.,  p.  96.) 

86  "  Qu'on  mobilize  les  fonds  des  particulars,  et  il  y  point  de 
mal  a  cela,"  VII,  p.  337.     (Cited  in  Lichtenberger.) 

87  Comp.  Lichtenberger,  who  gives  an  interesting  account  of 
these  lesser  writings,  op.  cit.,  pp.  383-388. 

88  "  Ces  lois,  je  ne  cesse  de  le  rep^ter  et  on  ne  saurait  trop  le 
redire,  en  6tablissant  un  partage  monstrueux  des  productions 
de  la  terre  et  des  4l6ments  m§mes,  en  divisant  ce  qui  devait 
Tester  dans  son  entier  ou  y  §tre  remis,  si  quelque  accident 
I'avait  divis^,  ont  aide  et  favoris6  la  ruine  de  toute  sociabilite. 
Sans  aliterer  dis-je  la  totality  des  choses  immobiles,  elle  devait 
ne  s'attachait  qu'a  regler  non  la  propri§t6,  maiis  I'usage  et  la 
distribution  de  eel  les  qui  ne  sont  pas  stables.     Code  de  la 


50  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

nor  Mably^^  nor  Necker^^  really  felt  their  idea 
to  be  practicable  or  even  desirable  under  mod- 
ern conditions,  any  more  than  Meslier  or  D'Argenson 
had  really  expected  to  see  the  mobilization  of  all  prop- 
erty under  a  centralized  democratic  government. 

It  is  then  one  of  the  interesting  contradictions  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  that  although  much  of  the  thought 
of  the  period  regarded  private  property  as  the  reason 
for  the  formation  of  society,  and  although  almost  all 
held  it  to  be  fundamental  to  society's  conservation, 
yet  a  conspicuous  number  of  persons  looked  upon  the 
property-right  uneasily  as  a  regrettable  necessity  and  the 
cause  of  much  social  misery.  Rousseau  is  largely  re- 
sponsible for  this,  as  for  other  contradictions  of  the 
times.  Though  Rousseau  said  enough  to  make  it  quite 
possible  to  quote  him  as  the  defender  of  private  prop- 
erty, the  greater  part  of  his  influence  went  in  the  di- 
rection of  discrediting  an  individual  property-right. 
In  spite  of  his  frequent  outbursts  regarding  the  sanc- 
tity of  property,  the  sum  of  Rousseau's  teaching  creates 
no  respect  for  property  in  the  hands  of  the  individual; 
rather  it  arouses  the  opposite  feeling.  Recalling  for 
a  moment  the  leading  principles  of  his  doctrine,  the 
reason  for  this  becomes  evident.    Rousseau  laid  greatest 


Nature,  pp.  77,  78.  Comp.  many  similar  passages  in  this  and 
in  the  Basiliade. 

89  "  Mais  nous  qui  voyons  les  maux  quii  sont  sorti  de  cette 
bolte  funeste  de  Pandore,  si  le  moindre  d'esperance  frappait 
notre  raison,  ne  devrions  nous  pas  aspirer  k  cette  heureuse 
oommunaute  de  biens,  tant  louge,  tant  regrettee  par  les  poetes 
*  *  *  et  qui,  grace  a  la  depravation  des  moeurs  ne  peut 
etre  qu'un  chim&re  dans  le  monde."    (Euvres,  XII,  p.  380. 

W  See  Lichtenberger,  op.  cit.,  pp.  304-314. 


THEORIES  OP  PROPERTY.  51 

stress  upon  a  state  of  nature,  where  each  and  all  had  been 
happy ;  upon  an  inevitable  social  contract,  one  of  whose 
unavoidable  results  had  been  property,  and  upon  the  er- 
rors of  an  artificial  feudal  society  which  practically 
rested  upon  the  property-right  that  derived  from  the 
social  contract.  Such  doctrines,  written  with  force  and 
emotional  conviction,  are  hardly  calculated  to  teach  any 
real  deference  for  the  property-right,  even  though  their 
author  writes  at  times  in  a  different  strain.  In  vain 
Eousseau  says  that  the  property-right  was  a  natural  and 
individual  right,  and  that  the  state  might  touch  it  only 
by  tax  or  inheritance  laws;^^  he  had  said  too  often,  and 
in  his  most  convincing  fashion,  that  rational  man,  unit- 
ing with  his  fellows,  was  perfectly  able  to  alter  any 
of  the  disagreeable  conditions  which  limited  social  hap- 
piness, and  he  had  said  too,  that  property  was  after  all 
the  beginning  of  the  present  discontent.®^  The  great 
sentimentalist's  real  influence  in  this  regard  made  for 
strengthening  that  dubious  attitude  toward  property 
which  is  to  be  found  so  often  in  the  imaginative  and 
political  writings  of  his  time.  The  sum  of  Eousseau's 
teachings  only  voiced,  with  deeper  feeling  and  in  less 
uncertain  terms,  the  doubt,  widespread  at  the  time, 
regarding  the  expediency  or  justice  of  private  property. 
The  eighteenth  century  seems  to  have  been  far  from 
clear  that  the  property-right  was  necessarily  an  indi- 
vidual and  inviolable  right. 

The  leading  principles  of  the  new  thought  of  the 
eighteenth    century    are    now    substantially    reviewed. 

9iComp.  Emile,  II,  pp.  181-187;  Econ.  pol.,  I,  p.  307,  ed. 

1782. 
92  Discours  sur  I'origine,  etc. 


52  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

During  the  progress  of  this  hundred  years,  men  come 
to  have  a  new  conception  of  the  individual  man,  another 
ideal  concerning  his  existence  here,  and  a  new  feeling 
with  regard  to  the  state  and  its  relation  to  the  indi- 
vidual. Most  pronounced  of  all  is  the  altered  concep- 
tion of  the  sphere  of  the  individual.  All  this  change 
expresses  itself  in  these  new  conceptions  of  happiness, 
of  liberty  and  equality,  which  have  now  been  briefly 
explained. 

In  pointing  the  application  of  these  new  theories,  old 
political  and  social  prejudices  came  constantly  under  the 
fire  of  criticism.  There  arose  frequent  protests  against 
legislation  which  failed  to  prevent  poverty  by  allowing 
large  private  holding,  and  sumptuary  laws,  inheritance 
laws  and  the  like  were  generally  and  warmly  advocated. 
The  new  ideas  of  liberty  and  equality  developed  also 
a  growing  unwillingness  to  accept  the  old  class  lines, 
and  there  appeared  the  tendency,  later  so  universal,  to 
separate  society  into  rich  and  poor,  rather  than  to 
recognize  the  four  classes  which  past  development  had 
given  to  the  nation.  The  logical  consequence  of  this, 
the  increasing  exaltation  of  labor  by  way  of  attack  upon 
privilege,  is  also  plainly  evident.  The  same  notions 
of  liberty  and  equality  lead  to  a  new  appreciation  of 
the  desirability  of  universal  education.  Boldly  ex- 
pressed though  these  more  concrete  conceptions  were, 
they  were  only  so  many  varying  consequences  of  the 
fundamental  doctrines.  To  have  a  well-defined  idea 
of  the  leading  theories  concerning  happiness,  liberty, 
equality  and  property  is  to  know  sufficiently  well  the 
influences  which  were  molding  a  new  social  ideal. 


INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SEVERAL  THEORIES.       53 
V. 

As  to  the  effect  of  these  several  principles,  the  story 
of  how  they  made  the  *^  revolution  in  thought "  of  which 
the  later  revolution  was  only  the  outer  expression,  is 
well  known.  It  is  possibly  dangerous  to  generalize 
about  the  relation  of  the  several  writers  to  this  later 
rebellion,  and  yet  it  seems  almost  certain  that  when  the 
Eevolution  came,  there  was  a  certain  cast  of  thought 
which  dominated.  Voltaire  and  the  Encyclopedists 
swept  the  ground  clear;  they  tore  away  the  veil  which 
hid  the  rottenness  of  the  old  doctrines.  Rousseau's 
writings  gave  men  most  of  what  they  had  to  put  in 
place  of  the  principles  the  others  had  discredited. 

Montesquieu's  word  reached  only  a  cultured  circle, 
of  whom  but  a  few  took  any  share  in  state  affairs.  In 
the  face  of  the  storm  others  raised,  his  eminently  sound 
political  teachings  were  for  a  time  practically  forgotten. 
Voltaire  and  the  Encyclopedists  sowed  the  wind  by 
anathematizing  the  established  institutions  which  they 
claimed  sought  to  impose  as  religion  and  ethics,  an  ugly 
and  outworn  mass  of  superstition,  and  so  tried  to  cramp 
men's  thinking  into  set  lines.  It  was  they  who  roused 
the  "beneficent  demon  of  doubt."  Theirs  was  the 
message  which  upset  men's  standards;  but  it  did  not 
fill  them  with  a  missionary  spirit,  it  did  not  make  them 
eager  to  be  active  agents  for  change.  So  with  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Physiocrats,  though  in  a  less  degree.  The 
teachings  of  this  school  undoubtedly  carried  great 
weight,  but  the  persons  whom  they  influenced  did  not 
get  political  power  until  the  whirl  of  revolution  was 
over.     Great  as  was  the  share  of  the  Physiocrats  in 


54  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

popularizing  the  idea  of  Natural  Eights  and  certain 
important  doctrines  of  administrative  government,  they 
did  not  include  among  the  rights  they  recognized  the 
right  to  a  share  in  controlling  the  form  of  government, 
and  that  doctrine  was  the  one  most  influential  in  revo- 
lutionary times.  Their  theories,  falling  in  with  the 
growing  passion  for  speculative  politics  and  with  the 
prevailing  desire  to  find  some  remedy  for  social  regula- 
tions growing  more  irksome,  took  deep  hold  on  many 
minds  and  made  an  impression  that  outlasted  the  heat 
of  revolution  —  an  impression  which,  in  fact,  gave  the 
sharply  individualistic  stamp  to  the  theory,  and  par- 
ticularly the  economic  theory,  of  our  own  century. 

It  was  the  fervid  teachings  of  Rousseau  that  gave 
greatest  impulse  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Revolution,  for 
Rousseau's  teaching  was  predominatingly  constructive, 
and  his  was  the  deep  and  intense  emotional  conviction 
which  makes  the  fanatic  in  a  cause.  Rousseau's  con- 
ception of  an  inherent  right  to  political  liberty,  founded 
upon  a  primitive  and  rational  contract,  this  doctrine 
that  held  to  the  old  notion  of  the  beneficent  and  deter- 
mining influence  of  the  body  politic,  but  now  made  the 
state  and  nation  synonymous,  was  one  which  made  a 
deeper  and  more  lasting  impression  upon  contemporary 
thought  than  the  vigorous  empirical  discussion  of  civil 
liberty  and  the  sound  notion  of  equality  which  Mon- 
tesquieu had  so  ably  presented,  or  the  economic  argu- 
ments for  civil  liberty  and  equality  which  the  Physio- 
crats had  advanced.  If  when  the  Revolution  came,  the 
understanding  of  civil  liberty  was  somewhat  obscure 
and  the  few  who  comprehended  its  worth  and  struggled 


ROUSSEAU'S  INFLUENCE,  55 

for  it  went  to  the  wall  before  the  feverish  claim  for 
universal  political  liberty,  it  is  perhaps  because  Kous- 
seau's  was  the  most  passionate  and  impelling  influence 
of  the  time;  and  Kousseau  had  not  taught,  because  he 
himself  had  not  understood,  the  value  of  civil  liberty 
as  the  basis  of  any  real  and  lasting  political  liberty. 
Rousseau's  sentiment  spread  the  idea  of  a  primevally 
happy  man,  and  his  doctrine  of  simplicity  of  life  fos- 
tered the  idea  of  equality.  Eousseau's  spirit  of  para- 
dox developed  the  uncertain  notion  of  property;  it 
popularized  as  well  the  idea  of  the  injustice  of  unequal 
possessions.  It  will  not  do  to  lose  a  sense  of  proportion, 
—  to  give  Eousseau  more  than  his  share  of  influence. 
It  is  true  that  the  revolutionary  principles  were  not  one 
doctrine;  they  were  the  composite  of  many,  but  Eous- 
seau's theory  was  undoubtedly  that  one  among  the  in- 
tellectual influences  of  the  eighteenth  century  which 
gave  a  particular  trend  to  the  revolutionary  theory. 

The  eighteenth  century  principles  were  then  the  seeds 
of  the  principles  of  the  Eevolution.  That  these  seeds 
bore  fruits  is  not  due  alone  to  the  warmth  and  attrac- 
tiveness which  Eousseau  breathed  upon  the  wealth  of 
new  ideas  which  the  century  scattered  over  France. 
To  grow,  seed  must  find  favorable  soil.  That  soil  was 
furnished  by  certain  facts  of  the  national  life  of  France, 
facts  that  made  men  in  increasing  numbers  search  for 
new  standards.  The  statement  of  the  immediate  causes 
of  the  principles  of  the  Eevolution  requires  that,  along 
with  the  new  principles  of  the  century,  these  social 
facts,  which  contributed  to  give  them  root  and  strength 
to  grow,  should  be  summed  up. 


56  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  FOR  CHAPTER  I. 

The  writings  which  have  been  used  as  most  representative 
of  the  new  thought. are: 

D'Alembert.  (Euvres,  ed.  Paris,  1821-22:  in  particular, 
Discours  pr6liminaire  de  I'Eneyelopedie ;  Analyse  de  I'Esprit  des 
Lois. —  D'Argenson.  Memoires,  ed.  Baudouin  frSres,  Paris, 
1825. — D'Holhach.  Syst^me  de  la  nature,  ed.  London,  1771. — 
D'Helvetius.  De  I'Esprit,  ed.  Paris,  1845. —  Diderot,  CEuvres, 
ed.  Garnier  fr^res,  Paris,  1875.  Especially,  Supplement  au 
Voyage  de  M.  de  Bougainville;  le  Neveu  de  Rameau;  articles 
on  Luxe,  HOpital,  HCmme,  Laboreur ;  the  "  Contes." —  Mably. 
Entretien  de  Phocion,  Amsterdam,  1763;  Droits  et  Devoirs 
du  Citoyen,  ed.  Paris,  1789. —  Mercier.  Tableau  de  Paris, 
Amsterdam,  1782;  L'An  2440,  ed.  Paris,  an  VII. —  Meslier. 
Le  Testament  de  Jean  Meslier,  ed.  R.  Charles,  Amsterdam, 
1864. —  Morelly.  Code  de  la  nature;  Basiliade,  ed.  Paris,  1841. 
— Montesquieu.  CEuvres,  ed.  Paris,  1820,  especially,  Lettres  Per- 
sanes;  Considerations  sur  la  Grandeur  et  Decadence  des  Ro- 
mains ;  De  I'Esprit  des  Lois. —  Necker.  Sur  la  legislation  et  le 
Commerce  des  Grains,  ed.  De  Stael,  Paris,  1820,  Vol.  I. —  Ques- 
nay.  CEuvres,  ed.  Oncken,  Paris,  1888. —  Rousseau.  CEuvres,  ed. 
Geneve,  1782,  in  particular,  Discours  sur  I'origine  et  les  fon- 
dements  de  rin#galite ;  Discours  sur  I'^conomie  politique ;  Con- 
siderations sur  le  gouvernement  de  Pologne  et  sur  sa  reforma- 
tion projettee;  Contrat  Social  and  many  interesting  discus- 
sions in  La  Nouvelle  Heloise  and  Emile. —  Saint  Pierre.  CEuvres, 
ed.  Aime-Martin,  Paris,  1818. —  Turgot.  Reflexions  sur  la  for- 
mation et  la  distribution  des  richesses.  Eng.  ed.  Macmillan, 
N.  Y.,  1898. —  Voltaire.  CEuvres,  ed.  Paris,  1785,  more  specially 
for  social  theories,  Siecle  de  Louis  XIV;  Charles  XII;  Essai 
sur  les  Moeurs;  Lettres  sur  les  Anglais;  Candide;  Micormegas; 
L'Homme  aux  Quarante  Ecus;  Discours  sur  I'Homme;  PoSme 
sur  le  Desastre  de  Lisbonne;  PoSme  sur  la  Loi  Naturelle;  nu- 
merous articles  in  the  Dictionnaire  Philosophique. 

Among  the  belles-lettres  of  the  eighteenth  century,  beside 
the  imaginative  writings  of  the  "  philosophes,"  those  specially 
indicative  of  the  thought  of  the  times  are: 

Beaumarchais.  Barbier  de  Seville;  Mariage  de  Figaro,  ed. 
Lemerre,  Paris,  1872. —  Boileau.  Satires,  ed.  Libraire  des  Bib- 
liophiles, Paris,  1876.— La  Bruyere.  Caracteres,  ed.  Firmin, 
Didot,  Freres,  Fils  et  cie.,  Paris,  ISQ9.—  Lesage.  Gil  Bias,  ed. 
Lemerre,  Paris,  1877. —  Marivaux.  Novels  and  dramas,  par- 
ticularly Vie  de  Marianne  and  Le  Paysan  Parvenu,  ed.  Gar- 
nier freres,  Paris.  Also  most  of  the  writings  of  RStif  de  la 
Bretonne,  Bernardin  de  Saint  Pierre  and  Sedaine. 

Among  more  recent  writings  on  the  thought  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century: 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  FOR  CHAPTER  L  57 

Espinas.  La  Philosophie  Sociale  au  XVITIe  si^cle  et  la  Revo- 
lution. F61ix  Alcan,  Paris,  1898. —  Higgs.  The  Physiocrats. 
Macmillan,  1897. —  Janet.  Histoire  de  la  Science  Politique. 
Vol.  11,  ed.  Paris,  1887. —  Lavergne.  Les  Economistes  au 
XVIIIe  si6cle,  ed.  Paris,  1870. —  Lichtenherger.  Le  Socialisme 
au  XVIIIe  siecle,  ed.  Felix  Alcan,  Paris,  1896. —  Morley.  Di- 
derot and  the  Encyclopedists:  ed.  Scribner,  N.  Y.,  1878;  Vol- 
taire, Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1872;  Rousseau,  ed.  Macmillan 
&  Co.,  1888. —  Rcinach.  Diderot,  ed.  Hachette  &  Cie.,  Paris, 
1894.— Leon  Say.  Turgot,  ed.  Hachette  &  Cie.,  Paris,  1891. 
—  Scherer.  Diderot,  ed.  Calmann  Levy,  Paris,  1880. —  Sorel. 
Montesquieu,  ed.  Hachette  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1887. —  Vian.  His- 
toire de  la  Vie  et  des  Ouvrages  de  Montesquieu,  ed.  Didier  et 
Cie.,  Paris,  1879. —  Walker-Stephens.  Life  and  Writings  of 
Turgot,  ed.  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  London,  1895. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  SOCIAL  FACTS  WHICH  SHAPED  AND 
DEVELOPED  THE  NEW  IDEALS. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

THE  SOCIAL  FACTS  WHICH  SHAPED  AND  DEVELOPED 
THE  NEW  IDEALS. 

I.  The  Part  Played  by  the  Old  Institutions. 
II.  The  Middle  Class  and  its  Relation  to  the  New  Prin- 
ciples. 

III.  Paris  as  an  Organizing  and  Concentrating  Influence. 

IV.  The  Final  Focusing  of  the  Principles  of  the  Revo- 

lution. 

The  rest  of  the  forward  movement  of  which  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  new  philosophy  marks  the  first  stage,  is 
a  story  of  how  new  ideals  gained  ground  and  took  on 
a  specific  character  as  social  conditions  created  a  need 
for  them.  The  revolutionary  principles  are,  in  a  sense, 
a  concentrated  selection  of  the  doctrines  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  and  it  is  necessary  to  inquire  with  some 
care  how  and  why  such  a  concentration  and  selection 
took  place. 

The  agents  which,  during  the  eighteenth  century, 
negatively  or  positively  co-operated  to  develop  the 
principles  of  the  Eevolution  from  the  ideas  of  the  phi- 
losophers, may  in  a  general  way  be  classified  as  follows: 
First  in  importance  is  the  character  of  the  old  regime. 
The  conditions  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XY  promoted  a 
well-announced  dissatisfaction  and  rebellion,  and  so  led 
the  rising  generation  to  adopt  new  theories  as  against 
accepted  ones,  while  the  vacillating  policy  of  his  suc- 
cessor and  certain  circumstances  in  the  life  of  other  na- 
tions, together  served  still  further  to  strengthen  and  con- 

61 


62  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCB  REVOLUTION. 

firm  the  desire  for  other  institutions.  In  addition  must 
be  considered  an  awakened  middle  class,  a  peculiarly  in- 
fluential metropolis  and  a  faction  pledged  to  radical  com- 
pleteness. In  other  words,  the  new  faith  spread  and 
grew  because  misgovernment  fostered  discontent;  the 
new  faith  got  practical  expression  because  the  Third 
Estate  roused  to  a  new  notion  regarding  its  proper  re- 
lation to  the  state  and  awoke  to  the  fact  of  its  actual 
political  iinpotence;  the  new  faith  concentrated  to  one 
dominant  set  of  principles,  because  the  social  life  and 
thought  which  centered  in  the  capital  of  the  nation 
greatly  helped  to  organize  and  propagate  the  new  opin- 
ion; and,  lastly,  this  new  faith  acquired  an  ultra  tone, 
because  doctrinaires,  leading  the  disaffected  and  the 
vagabonds  whom  the  old  regime  had  provided,  were  able 
to  change  a  spirit  of  reform  to  one  of  insurrection,  and 
thus  to  express  finally  the  principles  of  Revolution 
in  the  constitution  of  ^93. 


The  history  of  the  internal  affairs  of  France  during 
the  hundred  years  preceding  the  French  Revolution 
gives  repeated  evidence  that  the  time  for  passive  ser- 
vice and  suffering  had  passed  by  early  in  the  century. 
If  it  is  possible  to  find  in  D'Argenson,  before  1750, 
pictures  of  frequent  street  risings  and  to  hear  the  pitiful 
echo  of  cries  for  bread  coming  from  starving  men  and 
women,  evidently  revolution  is  in  the  making.^     The 

1  Rocquain,  L'Esprit  revolutionnaire  avant  la  Revolution, 
pp.  122,  136,  137. 


kISE  OF  REVOLT.  ^3 

4th  of  October,  1789,  seems  to  have  been  only  the  most 
effective  of  a  series  of  lesser  marches  of  the  women 
and  the  rabble  to  government  centers.  From  the  early 
half  of  the  century,  there  were  those  to  repeat  with 
increasing  conviction,  "  Kevolution  is  certain  in  this 
state ;  it  falls  to  pieces  from  the  very  foundations ;  there 
is  nothing  to  do  but  to  break  away  from  one^s  country 
and  to  pass  under  other  masters  and  some  other  form 
of  government  {forme  de  jour).''^  This  spirit  of  revolt 
which  a  neglectful  and  repressive  government  excited 
is  the  fact  of  chief  moment.  The  decadent  character 
of  the  reigns  of  the  Regent  and  of  Louis  XV  bred  that 
contempt  for  the  selfish  government  which  has  aptly 
been  called  the  '^  sense  of  negative  equality,"^  a  con- 
tempt from  which  the  idea  of  positive  equality  took 
courage  to  push  itself  into  national  institutions.  The 
political  and  class  degeneracy  and  the  consequent  social 
disintegration  stand  as  direct  antecedents  to  a  rising 
demand  for  a  social  reordering.  The  rotting-out  of  the 
old  institutions  of  church  and  state  and  the  misery  all 
this  caused,  is  the  accompaniment  to  the  rise  of  that 
widespread  distrust  and  rebellion  which  is  the  surest 
spur  to  the  adoption  of  new  principles. 

The  blind  admiration  for  the  state  which  had  so  no- 
tably characterized  the  earlier  part  of  the  reign  of  Louis 
XIV,  had  dwindled  greatly  before  the  old  king  died. 
It  was  all  gone  by  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV  — 
gone,  because  dreary  tawdriness  and  grossness  had  re- 
placed the  dazzling  splendor  which  the  best  years  of 

2  D'Argenson.    M^moires. 

3  Martin,  Histoire  de  France.  Tome  XV,  p.  348;  see  also 
Roequain,  op.  cit.,  pp.  5-7. 


64  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

the  age  of  the  Grand  Monarch  had  thrown  about  social 
institutions. 

Political  and  social  decay  undoubtedly  began  in  the 
reign  of  Louis  XIV.  Devastating  and  fruitless  wars 
and  a  short-sighted  internal  administration,  which  is 
after  all  what  the  reign  of  the  Grand  Monarch  reduces 
to,  had  done  their  work.  The  strong  ancl,  on  the 
whole,  beneficent  government  of  Eichelieu  and  Mazarin 
slowly  became  an  empty  pageant  resting  upon  hypoc- 
risy, intolerance  and  despotism;  the  glad  acclamations 
of  a  nation  hailing  a  young  monarch  who  was  to  lead 
them  to  national  glory  died  away  in  the  half-smothered 
groans  of  a  plundered  and  neglected  commonwealth. 
Every  thoughtful  memoir  of  the  times  describes  the 
ruthless  exploitation  and  degradation  of  a  nation,  tells 
of  a  king  growing  yearly  more  selfish,  fanatical  and 
short-sighted,  and  of  a  court  going  by  way  of  pompous 
etiquette  to  an  enforced  piety  and  finally  to  boredom. 

Those  who  followed  seemed  bent  on  completing  a 
work  of  destruction.  While  other  European  powers, 
great  and  small,  awakened  to  a  new  sense  of  duty  and 
the  nations  surrounding  France  might  almost  be  said 
to  have  suffered  from  too  much  care  by  enlightened 
despots,  who  under  the  guidance  of  French  philoso- 
phers reformed  everything,  France  herself  bowed  under 
the  reign  of  selfish  neglect  and  exploitation. 

Louis  XVs  reign  deepened  the  growing  disdain  of 
every  accepted  national  institution.  During  that  period. 
Church,  state  and  nobles,  to  whom  the  preservation  of 
the  national  life  had  been  intrusted,  were  all  alike  false 
to  their  trust.     Instead  of  a  dignified  church  with  a 


RISE  OF  REVOLT.  65 

Bossuet  to  represent  it,  the  eighteenth  century  knew  a 
rapacious  and  worldly  hierarchy  with  a  Dubois  at  its 
head;  in  place  of  a  stately  and  powerful  monarch,  who 
had  at  least  been  the  central  figure  of  the  national  life, 
the  King  of  France  was  now  one  whose  life  was  given 
to  brutish  and  ignoble  dissoluteness,  while  at  his  court 
and  under  his  influence,  the  gay,  luxurious,  yet  hon- 
orable nobility  of  the  previous  reign  had  degenerated 
into  a  crowd  of  courtiers,  for  the  most  part  profligate, 
rationalistic  and  selfish.  The  result  of  all  this  was  that 
king,  clergy  and  nobility  had  come  to  merit  and  to 
receive  a  deep  and  general  contempt.  As  the  century 
progressed,  all  three  reaped  the  harvest  of  a  growing 
national  discredit 

It  is  small  wonder  that  the  Church  was  first  to  rouse 
disdain  and  distrust.  Eeligion  and  its  practices  are 
ever  nearest  men's  emotions.  Those  who  stand  pledged 
to  preach  and  teach  such  practices  cannot  lead  lives 
entirely  at  variance  with  what  they  preach  and  main- 
tain their  leadership  very  long.  Catholicism  stood  for 
simplicity  of  life  and  aim,  for  faith  in  the  revealed 
truth,  for  a  single  and  united  church.  The  Galilean 
Church  of  the  eighteenth  century  did  not  really  respect 
any  one  of  these  standards.  In  worldliness,  it  outdid 
the  degenerate  Anglican  Church  of  the  same  period;  it 
was  intolerant,  not  for  spiritual  but  for  temporal  rea- 
sons ;  it  was  rent  with  internal  dissensions.  Preaching  a 
broad  humanity  and  the  equality  of  individuals,  the 
heads  of  the  church  maintained  a  glaring  inequality  of 
benefice  within  the  church,  and,  toward  the  world,  an  at- 
titude of  haughty  and  despotic  superiority.  Where  could 


QQ  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

men  find  respect  in  their  hearts  for  prelates,  many  of 
whom  were  notoriously  licentious  in  tl^eir  lives;  most 
of  whom  strove  more  for  the  church's  wealth  and  power 
than  for  the  salvation  of  their  own  or  their  parishioners' 
souls;  few  of  whom  gave  any  real  support  to  the  dog- 
mas they  were  ordained  to  teach."*  If  worldliness  and 
skepticism  had  not  been  sufficient,  schism  was  there 
too,  to  play  its  part  in  weakening  the  church's  power. 
The  quarrel  of  the  Jesuits  and  Jansenists,  lasting  almost 
one  hundred  years,  gave  to  the  world  an  exhibition  of 
pettiness,  superstition  and  tyranny  scarcely  calculated 
to  edify  or  to  keep  alive  the  respect  necessary  to  any 
church  which  would  control  its  adherents.  It  was 
as  much  in  consequence  of  these  facts  as  by  reason  of 
the  growing  influence  of  the  new  philosophy,  that  by 
the  end  of  the  century,  men  all  over  the  country  had 
only  contempt  or  active  opposition  to  offer  a  degenerate 
hierarchy.  So  many  proofs  of  bad  organization  and 
corruption  had  not  failed  to  bring  a  deserved  derision 
and  neglect  to  the  established  protectors  of  religion. 

The  effect  of  this  newly-aroused  feeling  was  as  far- 
reaching  as  the  influence  of  the  Church  had  once  been 
wide  and  real.  The  effect  upon  the  state,  for  instance, 
was  important.  When  faith  in  the  established  Church 
died  out,  faith  in  the  established  government  failed 
too.  It  was  on  the  authority  of  the  Church  that  men 
had  accepted  the  absolute  monarchy  under  which  they 
lived.     When  the  Church  that  sanctioned  it  no  longer 

4  Compare  Taine.  L'Ancien  regime.  Vol.  I,  ch.  iv;  Roc^ 
quain,  op.  cit.,  pp.  99  et  seq.;  Morse- Stephens,  French  Revolu* 
tion,  Vol.  I,  p.  295  et  seq. 


RISE  OF  REVOLT.  g7 

commanded  respect,  the  government  quickly  became  in 
danger  of  a  like  fate.  The  fall  of  political  absolutism 
followed  almost  necessarily  upon  that  of  spiritual  ab- 
solutism. And  this,  not  only  because  the  spirit  of 
Bossuet,  proclaiming  that  ^^  Kings  are  gods  and  their 
power  is  divine,'^  was  gone,  but  because  the  monarchy 
which  could  give  any  semblance  of  truth  to  such  a  doc- 
trine was  also  gone.  Whatever  act  of  egotism,  bigotry, 
double-dealing  or  persecution  the  Gallican  Church  of  the 
eighteenth  century  omitted  to  perform,  its  protector,  the 
state,  seemed  bent  on  doing  for  it.  Men  had  given  a 
willing  allegiance  to  absolutism  when,  by  a  haughty  for- 
eign policy  and  noble  protection  of  letters,  it  had  at 
least  brought  fame  and  glory  to  France;  but  they  now 
grew  rebellious  when  the  same  despotic  powers  were 
chiefly  used  for  the  ruthless  exploitation  of  a  starving 
nation,  in  order  to  satisfy  brutish  passions  or  to  fur- 
nish the  means  for  an  ignoble  patronage. 

Had  the  state  policy  of  Louis  XY  been  deliberately 
planned  to  sow  and  cultivate  the  seeds  of  revolt,  it 
must  have  been  pronounced  one  of  the  great  successes 
of  modern  times.  After  Fleury's  ineffective,  if  well- 
intentioned  ministry,  the  function  of  government 
seemed  to  become  an  organized  war  on  the  exercise  of 
free  thought,  a  shameless  patronage  of  rank  and  privi- 
lege. The  law  courts  became  so  many  agencies  to 
spread  disaffection,  for  the  criminal  and  civil  laws  were 
merely  arbitrary  rules  pliant  to  the  purse  and  position 
of  the  parties  in  the  quarrel.  Men  may  endure  capri- 
cious administration  of  the  civil  laws;  they  may  for  a 
long  time  stand  the  repression  of   free  thought;    but 


68  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

when  to  these  miseries  are  added  an  irregular  and  bur- 
densome tax  which  puts  not  only  the  intellectual  life, 
but  the  mere  physical  life  as  well,  in  jeopardy,  then 
revolt  is  not  far.  Every  student  of  the  "  revolutionary 
spirit  before  the  Eevolution ''  agrees  that  the  inequality 
of  the  tax-levy  and  the  ill-advised  methods  of  collecting 
the  state  revenues  did  more  than  any  other  single  line  of 
policy  to  corrupt  and  disaffect  the  nation.  The  manage- 
ment of  the  public  finance  was  the  crowning  folly  of 
a  deplorable  reign.  Louis  XV's  habit  of  wasteful  and 
lavish  expenditure  completed  whatever  work  of  aliena- 
tion the  other  abuses  of  the  century  had  begun.  A 
well-known  epigram  tells  how  the  country  which  had 
been  bled  by  one  cardinal  and  purged  by  another,  was 
now  being  put  on  diet  by  a  third.  Nature,  too,  was 
not  kind  during  the  century,  and  at  certain  periods, 
through  famine  and  storm,  the  misery  in  many  sections 
of  the  country  was  extreme.  The  shocking  falling-off 
in  the  population  of  many  districts  was,  in  the  time  of 
Louis  XV,  as  much  a  result  of  distress  as  of  war.^  Yet 
the  government  itself  maintained  a  continued  policy  of 
magnificence  and  extortion ;  it  supported  the  clergy  and 
nobles  in  using  their  customary  right  to  extort  from 
the  people  the  innumerable  duties  and  tolls  which  the 
surviving  feudal  privileges  enabled  these  upper  classes 
to  exact ;  it  urged  ruthlessly  its  own  claims  to  the  taille, 
the  gabelle,  the  corvee,  the  aides  and  the  countless  other 
internal  and  customs  duties.  It  will  be  remembered, 
too,  that  although  the  lower  classes  were  in  this  way 
made  to  pay  about  eighty-two  per  cent,  of  the  taxes, 

5  Compare  Martin,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  XIV,  Bk.  Ixxxix;  D'Argen- 
son,  M6moires,  pp.  301-306,  ed.  Bar^re. 


VACILLATION  OF  LOUIS  XVI.  gg 

this  was  not  all  their  trouble.  An  increasing  difficulty 
of  finding  employment  was  added  to  the  heavy  burden 
of  paying  the  tax,  and  it  gradually  came  to  be  under- 
Btood  that  this  decreasing  demand  for  labor  was  di- 
rectly traceable  to  the  same  government  which  enforced 
80  heavy  a  contribution  for  the  support  of  those  it  fa- 
vored and  for  itself.  For,  with  respect  to  every  kind 
of  industry,  Louis  XVs  government  pursued  a  policy 
of  ill-advised  and  special  legislation.  The  vicious  sys- 
tem of  the  regime  is  nowhere  better  evidenced  than 
in  the  way  it  discouraged  home  manufactures,  by  grant- 
ing a  system  of  monopolies,  sometimes  to  cities,  some- 
times to  individuals,  while  it  almost  destroyed  com- 
merce by  an  extortionate  tariff  and  heavy  export  duties. 
Whether  by  taxes  unequally  levied  between  different 
industries  and  various  districts;  whether  through  state 
monopoly  or  private  monopolies  under  state  protection, 
by  some  kind  of  legislation  in  regard  to  every  form  of 
industry,  the  state  was  forever  beside  the  individual, 
impeding  his  activity  and  demanding  an  enormous  share 
of  his  profit.  A  tottering  government  defeated  its  own 
ends  and  made  for  its  own  destruction. 

In  relation  to  the  reign  of  Louis  XVI,  a  story  of 
good  intentions  and  narrow  morality,  of  ignorance  of 
governmental  methods  and  failure  to  comprehend  the 
true  needs  of  the  situation,  is  to  be  set  over  against  the 
record  of  a  generation  beginning  to  believe  that  the  new 
ideals  might  possibly  be  realized,  and  growing  always 
more  deeply  incensed  at  the  vacillating  government 
under  which  it  found  itself.  To  show  how  Louis  XVI 
added  to  the  ferment  of  radicalism,  it  needs  not  to  tell 


70  PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

a  tale  of  selfish  living  and  gross  extravagance,  all  at  the 
expense  of  a  nation  becoming  rebellious  under  persecu- 
tion. The  story  is  now  one  which  describes  the  pitiful 
efforts  of  a  well-meaning  but  weak  monarch  to  make 
amends  for  a  century  of  misrule;  it  must  tell  how  he 
instituted  a  policy  as  uncertain  as  that  of  his  prede- 
cessors —  a  policy  differing,  however,  in  this  important 
point,  that  it  aimed  at  public  wellbeing,  even  though 
it  ultimately  failed  to  carry  out  its  intentions.  Unrest 
and  desire  for  change  came  to  the  definite  point  of  out- 
break during  the  fifteen  years  that  Louis  XVI  was  on 
the  throne  of  France,  more  because  he  filled  the  nation 
with  the  insupportable  emotion  of  hope  deferred,  than 
by  reason  of  any  great  misery  or  persecution  for  which 
his  government  was  responsible. 

In  the  France  Louis  XVI  came  to  rule,  the  institu- 
tional, not  the  national  life  was  decaying.  The  vigor- 
ous literature  of  the  century  is  proof  of  the  nation's 
intellectual  force.  The  enormous  sums  which  the  gov- 
ernment managed  to  extort  from  the  nation  prove  what, 
in  spite  of  abuses,  its  monetary  strength  must  have 
been,  and  these  sums  paid  in  tax  were  not  the  real 
evidence  of  the  wealth  of  the  country,  for  the  rich 
bourgeois  managed  to  buy  off  the  farmer-general  and 
the  peasants  affected  poverty  in  order  to  evade  the  de- 
mands of  his  agents.  There  is  plenty  to  show  that, 
during  Louis  XVI's  reign,  men  grew  fairly  prosperous.^ 
If  the  government,  aiming  to  help,  had  not  hindered 

6  See  in  particular,  on  this  point,  Babeau.  Le  village  sous 
I'ancien  regime,  and  La  vie  rurale  sous  I'ancien  regime.  Also, 
Brunetidre.  Le  Paysan  sous  I'Ancien  Regime,  in  Histoire  et 
Litt^rature.    Paris,  1893* 


VACILLATION  OF  LOUIS  XVI.  71 

instead;  if  it  had  adopted  and  carried  out  any  single 
policy  meeting  the  more  urgent  claims  for  reform,  the 
revolutionary  principles  might  never  have  been  formu- 
lated. 

The  government  did  no  such  thing.  The  king 
and  his  advisers  acknowledged  the  need  of  re- 
forms, but  they  could  not  agree  upon  a  settled 
policy.  The  administration  only  succeeded  in  keep- 
ing up  an  intermittent  expectation  of  better  things. 
At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  discontent  with 
the  old  regime  deepened  and  finally  turned  to  active 
agitation  for  new  theories,  because  the  whole  legisla- 
tion of  the  period  in  question  consisted  in  taking  the 
burdens  from  the  shoulders  of  an  oppressed  people  and 
then  putting  them  on  again  ;''^  because  ephemeral  and 
ill-advised  efforts  at  reform,  instead  of  calming  the 
national  impatience,  only  added  to  the  popular  agita- 
tion. 

The  story  of  Turgot's  brief  effort  to  do  for  France 
that  which  he  had  done  for  Limousin,  and  how  it  was 
frustrated  by  the  queen  and  the  court  faction  who  got 
the  ear  of  the  irresolute  king,  is  the  best  known  ex- 
ample of  how  those  in  power  taught  the  nation  what 
might  be.  But  the  provincial  assemblies,  though  less 
often  cited,  are  an  example  even  more  noteworthy. 
These  provincial  assemblies  remain  for  history  the  most 
marked  evidence  of  how  Louis  and  his  ministers,  aid- 
ing in  their  own  overthrow,  made  positively  for  the 

7Comp.  Bailly.  M^moires,  I,  p.  42;  see,  also,  Von  Hoist, 
op.  cit.,  I,  p.  98 ;  De  Tocqueville,  L'Ancien  Regime  et  la  Revo- 
lution, p.  47  and  p.  214.  ed.  Michel  L6vy,  1857;  Jobez,  La 
France  sous  Louis  XVI,  Vol.  I,  passim. 


72  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

progress  of  new  thought  and  helped  to  determine  its 
character. 

The  king  set  up  in  each  parish  of  his  kingdom  as- 
semblies constituted  so  as  to  recognize  partially  the 
principle  of  representation,  and  intrusted  them  with 
measurably-large  executive  powers.  When  a  monarch 
does  this,  he  fosters,  knowingly  or  not,  the  desire  for  self- 
government.  Moreover,  when  the  government,  through 
such  assemblies,  permits  a  fair  representation  of  the  na- 
tion to  apportion  the  tax,  to  direct  public  works  and  to 
oversee  local  affairs,  by  that  act  it  gives  to  the  people 
most  likely  to  control  the  minds  of  others,  the  chance 
to  see  clearly  into  the  structure  and  methods  of  the 
existing  administration.  If  this  be  done  when  govern- 
ment is  in  severe  straits,  and  is,  though  against  its  con- 
science, forced  to  adopt  an  unjust  and  arbitrary  tax 
system,  there  follows  a  national  participation  in  ugly 
administrative  secrets  which  is,  to  say  the  least, 
undesirable.  Through  these  provincial  assemblies, 
the  central  government  under  Louis  XVI  made 
just  such  a  revelation  of  weakness  and  uncertainty  to 
influential  representatives  of  each  class  of  the  nation. 
Before  this  policy,  like  all  the  rest,  was  reversed,  men 
had  learned  that  representative  local  government  was 
not  a  chimera.® 

The  history  of  the  statutory  law  during  the  reign 
in  question  show  similarly  how  fees,  fines  and  taxes 
were  remitted  and  then  enforced  again;  how  courts 
were  reorganized  and  then  restored  to  their  old 
status;  how  industries  and  cities  were  freed  from  old 

8  On  the  provincial  assemblies,  see  Lavergne,  Les  Assembl^eg 
provinciales  sou?  Louis  XVI, 


VACILLATION  OF  LOUIS  XVI.  ^3 

restraints,  only  shortly  after  to  have  them  reimposed. 
But  the  assemblies  are  the  best  example  of  how  Louis 
the  Good  educated  his  people  as  to  what  might  be,  and 
at  the  same  time  showed  them  what  must  be  for  a  long 
time  if  the  old  political  order  continued.  The  con- 
sequence of  all  this  legislative  tinkering  was  the  same. 
Every  man  who  cared  to  know  was  convinced  by  the 
vacillating  law-making  that  even  the  government,  if  it 
were  not  afraid  of  self-destruction,  would  be  willing  to 
pronounce  for  political  liberty,  equal  justice  and  a  fair 
and  equal  tax.  The  hope  of  seeing  such  institutions  as 
should  make  these  principles  part  of  the  social  life  rose 
high  as  the  weakness  and  indecision  of  government  grew 
more  apparent,  and  with  that  hope,  faith  grew  also  in 
the  doctrines  that  prompted  the  hope. 

This  same  shilly-shally  policy  may  be  said  to  have 
had  a  notable  part  in  making,  not  merely  new  prin- 
ciples, but  the  revolutionary  character  of  the  new  prin- 
ciples. The  letter-patent  of  December  27,  1788,^  which 
arranged  the  preliminaries  of  a  States-general  may 
almost  be  said  to  have  made  revolutionary  acts  inev- 
itable. The  Third  Estate  was  encouraged  to  hope  that 
the  popular  wishes  were  to  be  recognized,  for  it  was 
given  double  representation;  the  meeting  was  called 
at  Versailles,  close  to  that  Paris  which  was  known  to 
be  in  a  ferment  of  radicalism ;  finally  voters  in  the  bail- 
lages  were  instructed  to  bestow  full  and  sufficient  pow- 
ers upon  their  representatives,  the  implication  being 
that  their  representatives  were  to  undertake  a  work  of 
legislation.     To  realize  how  these  provisions  made  for 

©Cherest.    La  Chute  de  TAncien  R6gime.     II,  p.  241. 


74  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

revolution,  it  is  only  necessary  to  recall  how  govern- 
ment weakly  left  the  orders  themselves  to  struggle  over 
the  question  of  representation  until  the  Serment  de 
Jeu  de  Paume^^  settled  the  controversy  of  vote  par 
ordre  or  vote  par  tete;  to  remember  how  well  Paris 
availed  itself  of  the  nearness  of  Versailles,  in  order 
finally  to  force  the  government  to  act  under  its 
eye  and  voice,  and  to  recollect  how  the  great  bitter- 
ness of  the  struggle  between  king  and  Assembly  grew 
out  of  the  king's  fixed  belief  that,  letters-patent  not- 
withstanding, states-generals  were  called  together,  not 
to  redress  administrative  abuses,  but  to  devise  means  for 
filling  a  depleted  treasury.  Because  government  re- 
fused to  recognize  the  logical  conclusions  of  its  own 
rulings,  it  finally  sent  the  mob  to  the  Bastille  in  a  dream 
of  ending  famine  and  misery  by  a  symbolic  demolish- 
ment  of  the  instrument  of  tyranny  that  had  stood  so 
long  at  the  city  gates.  From  July  14th,  the  mis- 
understanding between  the  government  and  the  nation 
was  complete.  From  that  time  to  the  end,  Louis  XVI 
was  the   shuttle-cock   of  contending  factions.^^     The 

10  The  resolutions  are  to  be  found  in  full  in  the  Moni- 
teur  for  June  20,  1789,  or  in  Bailly,  Memoires,  Vol.  I,  p.  190. 

11  It  cannot  be  too  often  accented  how  lamentable  a  picture 
Louis  XVI  presents  in  the  light  of  the  events  which  make  up 
the  two  years  during  which  the  Constituent  Assembly  met. 
If  it  were  not  so  pitiful,  the  picture  would  be  laughable.  It 
is  quite  usual  to  see  the  Assembly  doing  as  it  will,  taking 
from  the  king  all  that  had  been  his  ancient  right,  and  the 
sanction  of  his  rule,  and  then,  as  on  the  night  of  August  4th, 
hastening  to  send  him  by  a  deputation  (see  e.  g.,  Moniteur, 
I,  p.  293),  "its  acknowledgments'*  for  what  had  been  done 
in  spite  of  his  wish,  and  to  "  congratulate  him  that  he  has 
to  command  a  nation  so  generous."  (See,  also,  Mirabeau's 
remarks  quoted  in  Bailly,  op.  cit..  Vol.  I,  p.  393.)  At  each 
point  in  the  making  of  the  new  law,  Louis'  ineffectual  efforts 


FOREIGN  INFLUENCES.  75 

consciousness  of  utter  separation  of  view,  and  the  spirit 
of  daring  necessary  to  give  an  extreme  character  to  the 
new  principle,  had  been  successfully  awakened  by  a 
series  of  government  blunders  hard  to  match  in  history. 
Along  with  the  wearying  uncertainty  with  which 
Louis  XVI's  government  filled  the  nation,  an  outside 
influence  came  directly  to  strengthen  into  a  new  faith, 
the  longings  which  were  stirring.  Since  the  revolution 
of  1688,  English  individualism,  by  its  thought  and  by 
the  social  institutions  it  had  slowly  developed,  had  grad- 
ually come  to  have  an  appreciable  influence  upon  many 
able  thinkers  of  France.  The  days  of  the  Kegency  saw 
men  aping  the  English  dress  and  amusements;  the  end 
of  the  century  saw  them  eager  to  imitate  the  more 
serious  practices  of  their  neighbor.  The  many  men  of 
letters  whom  persecution  or  desire  for  travel  led  to  Eng- 
land^2  during  the  eighteenth  century  returned  enthusi- 
astic, to  put  before  Frenchmen,  not  merely  the  social 
forms,  but  the  political  methods,  the  political  theories 
and  the  philosophical  doctrine  they  had  learned  in  that 
foreign  atmosphere.  English  philosophy,  as  Bacon, 
Newton,  Hobbes  and  Locke  had  taught  it;  English 
deism,  as  Shaftesbury,  Bolingbroke  and  Pope  were 
spreading  it;  English  institutions,  as  the  rapidly  devel- 
oping political  life  of  the  time  showed  them, —  all  these 

to  block  or  to  change  the  character  of  the  legislation,  his  fatal 
temporizing  with  all  factions,  what  might  be  called  his  pains- 
taking uncertainty,  soon  left  him  inevitably  shorn  of  all  real 
power.  Less  than  a  year  after  the  meeting  of  the  States-Gen- 
eral, the  king  stood  outside  the  Assembly,  "  the  hostage  of  the 
ancient  regime  in  the  hands  of  a  nation"  (Lamartine,  His- 
toire  des  Girondins,  I,  p.  17),  playing  as  sorry  a  rCle  of  inde- 
cision and  impotence  as  it  was  ever  given  king  to  enact. 
12  Comp.  Morley.    Voltaire,  p.  52,  ed.  1872. 


76  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

aspects  of  English  national  life  deeply  impressed  men 
like  Montesquieu,  Voltaire  and  Eaynal,  and  through 
them,  the  lesser  writers  of  the  age.  It  has  heen  seen 
how  the  chief  propositions  of  the  English  philosophy, 
the  denial  of  innate  ideas  and  the  limitation  of  all 
knowledge  to  that  which  the  senses  can  affirm,  crept 
into  French  philosophy  as  counter-propositions  to  the 
dogmas  of  a  theology  and  philosophy  now  becoming  gen- 
erally despised.  The  leading  principles  of  English  po- 
litical philosophy  were  that  very  Law  of  Nature  and  that 
theory  of  Natural  Eights  which,  through  the  Physio- 
crats and  Eousseau,  became  so  many  starting-points  for 
the  French  political  theorists.  English  civil  liberty  and 
English  constitutional  law  gave  the  jurists  or  the  ad- 
ministrative reformer  his  cue,  when  he  appealed  from 
the  present  to  a  more  desirable  governmental  form. 

English  civil  liberty,  English  philosophy,  English 
civilization,  were  then  a  potent  force  in  shaping  revolu- 
tionary ideas;  but  it  was  an  English  colony  separating 
from  its  mother  country  which,  at  this  later  time,  acted 
as  direct  encouragement  to  the  spread  of  new  principles. 
The  American  struggle  for  independence  was,  in  rela- 
tion to  the  revolutionary  principles,  an  important 
fact  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XVI.  American  colonial 
life  had  been  the  background  for  the  poetic  characters 
in  the  French  literature  of  the  first  part  of  the 
century.  When  the  struggle  of  the  English  colony  for 
its  liberty  began,  on  the  basis  of  a  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence formulated  by  men  whose  leading  spirit  was 
an  ardent  disciple  of  Eousseau,  the  conflict  and  what 
it  stood  for  at  once  caught  the  imagination  of  the 
French.    The  interest  thus  aroused  presently  influenced 


FOREIGN  INFLUENCES.  ^7 

to  acts.  The  imperturbable  Franklin  was  among  them 
to  answer  with  a  hopeful  "^a  ira,"^^  the  many  eager 
questions  as  to  the  probable  outcome  of  a  contest  which 
seemed  likely  to  decide  the  possible  application  of  the 
new  "  rights  of  man/'  Brave  men  of  their  own  nation 
were  constantly  returning  from  the  scene  of  the  con- 
test to  tell,  as  only  allies  and  converts  can,  of  the  new 
democracy  and  its  successful  beginnings.  ISTaturally, 
what  had  seemed  to  be  abstract  ideas  now  rapidly  took 
on  the  appearance  of  concrete  and  living  facts.  The 
many  prefer  imitation  to  invention.  The  idea  of  doing 
what  another  nation  has  already  done  now  appealed 
to  liberal  men  in  France,  who  would  have  hesitated  to 
enter  upon  an  absolutely  new  governmental  experi- 
ment. There  seems  little  doubt  that  the  American  war 
of  Independence  and  the  events  which  followed  it  had 
a  large  share  in  shaping  popular  opinion  to  a  definite 
ideal  of  government.  Because  it  fed  the  growing  hopes 
of  change  and  gave  to  France  republican  leaders  like 
Lafayette  and  Lally,  because  it  put  a  modem  democ- 
racy before  the  imagination  of  men  already  possessed 
by  an  intense  admiration  for  the  theory  of  democracy 
and  the  concrete  democracy  of  antiquity,  this  fight 
in  the  name  of  the  right  of  the  governed  aided  to  hurry 
the  nation  forward  to  a  concrete  expression  of  revolu- 
tionary principles. 

One  factor  in  working  this  change  in  the  national 
temper,  which  was  to  bring  about  a  new  theory,  needs 
considerable  emphasis.     It  has  been  said  that  all  the 

13  Note  the  story  of  the  De  Goncourts  concerning  Frank- 
lin's responsibility  for  the  introduction  of  the  phrase  into  revo- 
lutionary parlance.  La  society  francaise  pendant  la  Revolu- 
tion, p.  62. 


Y8  i'RI'NCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

French  institutions  which  stood  for  the  preservation 
of  the  national  morality  and  security,  falling  away  from 
their  purpose  by  reason  of  weakness  or  worse,  had  bred 
a  national  distrust  and  contempt.  It  has  been  further 
explained  that  the  rising  national  revolt  was  based  upon 
a  new  hope,  resting  upon  a  new  ideal  and  strengthened 
by  another  nation's  example,  but  the  exact  nature  of 
the  medium  which  was  to  express  this  new  spirit  is  yet 
to  be  indicated.  It  is  now  time  to  direct  the  attention 
to  this  medium,  the  so-called  Tiers-Etat  of  France,  for 
the  new  principles  would  never  have  taken  the  char- 
acter they  did  assume  had  they  not  been  the  principles 
of  the  Third  Estate. 

n. 

To  clear  the  stage  for  the  agent  most  active  in 
setting  up  the  new  theories  of  social  life,  a  few  prelimi- 
nary words  seem  desirable  to  show  why  the  new  ideals 
could  have  no  effective  support  from  the  clergy,  the 
nobles  or  the  peasantry.^^ 

The  clergy  of  1789  could  never  have  led  France  in  a 
movement  to  establish  any  new  system.  This  is  true,  not 
only  because  the  religion  whose  vicars  they  were,  bound 
them  to  conserve  the  old  principles.     Of  itself,  this  fact 

14  The  numerical  strength  of  the  Third  Estate  would  not 
in  itself  be  reason  enough.  Although  the  privileged  classes 
scarcely  numbered  together  300,000,  in  a  population  of 
26,000,000  ( see  Taine,  note  at  the  end  of  I,  op.  cit.,  ed.,  Hach- 
ette,  1899),  with  their  power,  social  and  economic,  they  might, 
other  things  being  equal,  have  controlled  the  affairs  of  the 
nation.  On  the  other  hand,  the  peasants,  though  they  made 
the  half  of  the  population  (Boiteau,  Etat  de  la  France  en 
1789),  could  not  compensate  by  mere  numbers  for  other  de- 
ficiencies. 


CLERGY  UNDER  THE  OLD  REGIME.  79 

might  not  have  been  an  impediment,  for,  as  has  been 
seen,  during  the  century  many  of  the  clergy  fell  away 
from  any  real  support  of  the  church  creeds  and  might 
have  been  willing  to  discredit  old  doctrines.  The  reason 
for  the  unfitness  of  the  class  was  rather  social  than 
theological.  Even  when  touched,  as  they  often  were, 
by  the  new  currents  of  opinion,  the  clergy  were  too 
much  divided  among  themselves,  and  the  influential 
part  of  the  class  had  too  much  to  lose  and  too  little  to 
gain  by  change  to  be  likely  to  become  effective  par- 
tisans of  the  new  philosophy.  The  clergy  drew  its  per- 
sonnel from  all  the  other  classes  and  thus,  in  a  cer- 
tain sense,  it  included  in  its  ranks  elements  naturally 
predisposed  to  innovating  doctrines,  but  the  persons 
radically  disposed  rarely  made  their  way  to  positions 
of  influence.  The  few  poor  and  lowly  men  who,  like 
Dubois,  did  rise  to  high  places,  lost  on  the  way  any 
democratic  leanings  they  might  have  had.  On  the 
whole,  it  was  the  rule  to  find  cures  and  their  aids 
of  bourgeois  or  peasant  extraction;  it  was  the  ex- 
ception to  find  any  but  noblesse  controlling  the  affairs 
of  the  Church. ^^  Following  prejudices  common  to  the 
society  at  large,  the  hierarchical  distinctions  within  the 
caste  corresponds  to  the  same  dividing  lines  which  made 
the  other  three  classes  in  the  kingdom. 

The  clergy  was  then  divided  within  itself,  and  this 
too  not  only  on  questions  of  theory.    The  interests  and 

15  The  court  power  over  the  Church  was  such  that,  of  the 
one  hundred  and  thirty-one  archbishops  and  bishops  of  France, 
only  five  were  men  of  roturier  birth,  and  these  five  were  the 
poorest  of  all.  See  Morse-Stephens,  French  Revolution,  I, 
p.  34,  ed.  Scribner's  Sons,  1886. 


go  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

sympathies  of  its  influential  members  bade  them  wish  to 
preserve  the  old  order;  the  interests  of  the  lower  clergy 
dictated  just  the  opposite  policy.  Time  had  made  for  in- 
creasing the  bond  between  church  and  state;  a  system 
of  endowments  and  emoluments  had  gradually  given  the 
upper  clergy  much  profit  and  much  privilege.  The 
cure,  as  ruthlessly  exploited  and  as  poor  in  resource 
as  the  bourgeois  or  peasant  whose  spiritual  life  he 
ministered  to,  might  be,  and  generally  was,  in  accord 
with  his  parishioners.  But  for  that  very  reason  he  was 
at  odds  with  the  upper  clergy  and  the  court  party.  EacT- 
icalism  might  then  have  a  following  in  the  Church  ;^^ 
the  most  radical  principles  of  the  century  might  come 
as  they  did,  from  the  cures  who  dwelt  in  distant  corners 
of  the  nation;  but,  as  a  class,  no  strong  movement 
could  be  expected  from  the  clergy.  Bound  to  con- 
servatism by  its  most  deeply-rooted  prejudices,  disagree- 
ing within  itself  upon  social  questions,  the  clerical  class 
as  a  whole,  democratic  though  much  of  it  was,  could 
liardly  be  expected  to  make  an  effective  fight  for  radi- 
cal innovations. 

The  nobility  was  not,  like  the  clergy,  a  class  divided 
within  itself.  In  a  general  way,  something  like  har- 
mony may  be  said  to  have  obtained  among  the  nobles. 
In  the  first  place,  the  very  nature  of  the  class  argued 
for  some  solidarity;  its  origin  and  prejudices  made  for 
a  predominating  unity  of  opinion  within  its  ranks. 
While  the  clergy  might  increase  by  appointment  or 
voluntary  association,  nobility  came  with  birth  only.     A 

16  As  final  evidence  of  this  radical  drift  among  the  clergy, 
it  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  the  so-called  "  insurrection  of 
the  cures." 


NOBILITY   UNDER   THE   OLD   REGIME,  gl 

man  might  come  into  the  class  from  one  of  the  others 
hy  patent-right  hut,  until  two  generations  of  such  no- 
bility were  behind  him,  he  was  only  "  petite  noblesse/' 

The  order,  deriving  its  status  from  the  feudal  system, 
was  a  land-owning  class  and  a  permanent  class,  since 
it  only  recognized  as  qualified  members  of  itself  those 
whose  claims  to  enter  the  class  rested  upon  heredity. 
A  sense  of  perfect  equality  thus  held  among  the  persons 
of  this  class,  an  equality  shaded  only  by  difference  of 
occupation;  noblesse  d'epee,  noblesse  de  robe,  court  or 
provincial  noblesse, —  no  matter  the  particular  interest, 
any  member  of  the  order  was  a  noble  first  of  all.  The 
class  stood  stoutly  together,  supporting  unanimously 
a  special  code  of  morals  and  manners,  a  particular  privi- 
lege of  culture  for  mere  culture's  sake,  and  a  general 
right  to  as  much  as  possible  of  the  joys  of  life  and  as 
little  as  might  be  of  its  cares. 

But  unity  of  opinion,  while  it  is  a  formidable  force, 
is  not  enough  in  itself  to  make  the  nucleus  of  a  political 
party  with  strength  sufficient  to  forward  new  opinions. 
Among  the  class  in  question  there  was  a  certain  concen- 
sus of  opinion,  but  there  was  nothing  beside,  that 
was  of  practical  value  for  leadership.  From  the  twelfth 
century  the  nobility  had  been  steadily  losing  any  real 
political  power,  and  at  the  time  under  discussion,  the 
class  was  without  any  but  a  self-seeking  interest  in 
politics. ^"^  Louis  XIV  had  given  the  final  blow  to  any 
political  control  the  nobles  had  managed  to  have  up  to 
that  time,  and  now,  under  Louis  XVI  they  no  longer 

17  Thierry.  Essai  8ur  la  formation  et  le  progr6s  du  Tiers- 
Etat.    ed.  Fume,  1868,  p.  103. 

6 


g2  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

took  any  real  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  government.^® 
The  second  estate  might  direct  the  armies^^  and  take  a 
certain  share  in  the  counsels  of  the  king;  but  the  entire 
administration  of  the  national  life,  that  is,  the  real  con- 
trol of  the  government,  had  passed  into  other  hands. 
As  a  class  these  "  gentilhommes  '^  of  the  nation  lived 
in  a  more  or  less  unavoidable  leisure,  pleasure-seeking  or 
somewhat  superficially  literary  if  at  the  capital,^  rest- 
less and  useless  if  in  the  provinces.^^  The  dazzle  of 
privilege  which  the  noblesse  still  enjoyed  to  the  full 
blinded  them  to  their  loss  of  power,  though  it  was 
clear  to  any  dispassionate  observer  that  this  power  was 
passing  away,  both  actually  and  in  men's  minds.  The 
class  was  growing  poorer  too,  because,  beyond  the  pro- 
duct of  their  lands,  they  had  no  means  of  adding  to 
their  incomes;  their  prejudices  shut  them  out  from  the 
commerce  that  was  making  the  bourgeois  wealthy;  the 
same  prejudice  forbade  intermarriage,  the  only  remain- 
ing expedient  by  which  the  one  class  could  have  profited 
by  the  gains  of  the  other.  On  the  other  hand,  the  grow- 
ing wealth  of  the  bourgeoisie  constrained  the  nobles  to 
an  ill-afforded  expenditure  in  order  to  maintain  that 

isComp.  Taine,  Les  Origines  de  la  France  contemporaine, 
p.  99  et  seq. ;  also  pp.  175  et  seq.  Elsewhere  he  says  they 
were  "  aussi  strangers  aux  affaires  de  France  qu'a  celles  du 
Japon."    ed.  Hachette,  1899. 

19  Comp.  -De  Tocqueville.  "  En  apparence  la  t§te  d'une 
arm§e,  en  reality  un  corps  d'officiers  sans  soldats."  L'Ancien 
Regime  et  la  Revolution,     ed.  Michel  Levy,  1857,  p.  334. 

20  Taine,  op.  cit.  ed.  Hachette,  1880, 1,  p.  366,  says  that  phi- 
losophize for  the  sake  of  philosophy,  not  for  its  application 
to  reality.    Comp.  De  Tocqueville,  op.  cit.,  I,  pp.  103-105. 

21  Arthur  Young.  Travels  in  France,  ed.  George  Bell  & 
Sons,  1890,  p.  70. 


NOBILITY  UNDEk  THE  OLD  REGIME.  gg 

prestige  for  elegance  and  splendor  which  had  always 
belonged  to  their  class.  To  escape  the  debt  this  expen- 
diture involved,  the  nobles  were  driven  to  draw  heavily 
on  their  only  source  of  revenue.  To  swell  their  income 
they  used  their  privileges,  and  the  unscrupulous  exer- 
cise of  this  right  of  privilege  did,  perhaps,  more  than 
anything  else  to  discredit  the  nobility  in  the  eyes  of 
the  masses.^^  Some  one  has  well  said  that  a  true  aris- 
tocracy rests  on  wealth,  knowledge  and  birth.  Of  these 
three  elements,  the  nobility  of  France  could,  at  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  claim  only  birth  to  justify 
its  privilege;  to  offset  this  one  positive  qualification,  it 
had  a  dozen  negative  attributes  springing  from  the 
many  small  vices  and  mistaken  notions  which  the  tenets 
of  their  rank  had  made  class  characteristics. 

It  is  not  then  surprising  to  find  that,  at  the  close  of 
the  century,  the  noblesse  was  a  caste  holding  to  glamour 
without  substance;  a  caste  whose  opinions  make  for  a 
reactionary  policy  or  at  best  a  strong  conservatism. 
The  exigencies  of  the  life  of  the  noble  rarely  brought 
him  into  contact  with  his  tenants,  and  he  was,  there- 
fore, usually  entirely  ignorant  concerning  the  condition 
of  the  mass  of  the  nation.  The  new  literary  movement 
of  the  day  seemed  to  the  members  of  this  doomed  class, 
subject  for  an  amused  patronage  or  polite  ridicule;  they 
appear  to  have  had  little  idea  that  it  was  really  a  men- 
ace to  the  advantages  which  they,  as  a  class,  enjoyed. 
Between  pride  and  prejudice,  frivolity  and  harshness, 
the  class  as  a  whole  aided  blindly  in  its  own  ruin.     All 

22  See  De  Tocqueville,  art.  on  "  France  before  the  Revolu- 
tion," in  "Memoires  and  Remains,"  ed.  1862.  Comp.  also 
Taine,  op.  cit.,  I,  pp.  416-418,  ed.  1880. 


g4         PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

its  history  developed  a  certain  solidarity  among  the 
noblesse,  but  a  solidarity  making  for  a  class  separatism 
that  argued  strongly  against  the  class,  as  such,  taking 
any  active  share  in  a  national  effort  for  the  adoption  of 
new  principles. 

As  to  the  peasant  and  artisan  class,  those  whom  later 
terminology  calls  the  Fourth  Estate,  their  condition,  as 
much  as  that  of  the  clergy  and  nobility,  precluded 
them  from  any  initiative  part  in  rebellion.  But,  while 
in  the  clergy,  disorganization,  and  in  the  noblesse,  con- 
servatism, each  made  for  opinion  only  weakly  leaning 
toward  revolutionary  principles,  it  might  rather  be 
said  that  the  peasant  could  not  father  revolutionary 
ideas,  because,  as  a  class,  he  had  scarcely  come  to  have 
any  idea.  The  peasant  was  rather  "  the  inert  mass  on 
which  those  who  made  the  Eevolution  worked."^ 
Although  the  agricultural  classes  often  had  real  enough 
grounds  for  actively  seconding  the  movement  which 
others  started,  they  rarely  did  it  from  any  reasoned  mo- 
tive. It  seems  certain  that  the  tendency  has  been  to 
overestimate  the  misery  of  the  whole  peasantry,  because 
of  the  undoubted  oppression  of  certain  sections  of  the 
country ,2*  but  the  degradation  of  the  class  was  in  any 

23  Belloc.  Life  of  Danton,  p.  18,  ed.  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons,  1899. 

24  Comp.  on  peasant,  proving  his  misery,  Taine,  op.  cit.,  II, 
bk.  V,  ed.  1899;  on  the  exaggeration  of  this  misery,  see  Ba- 
beau,  Le  Village  sous  I'ancien  Regime;  and  La  vi€  rurale  dans 
I'ancienne  Franee.  by  the  same  author;  also,  Brunetiere. 
Le  Paysan  sous  L'Aneien  Regime,  in  Histoire  et  Litterature. 
Arthur  Young  gives  suggestions  for  both  sides;  Dr.  Rigby's 
Letters  paint  a  rural  prosperity,  which  is  very  far  from  the 
current  notion  concerning  the  condition  of  the  peasant  under 
the  old  regime. 


PEASANT  UNDER  THE  OLD  REGIME.  gS 

case  bad  enough.  As  has  been  said,  many  among  the 
people  were  reduced  to  a  pitiable  and  often  vicious  con- 
dition, by  reason  of  the  tax  system,  the  neglect  and 
harshness  of  the  land-holders  and  the  wretched  pittance 
they  could  earn.  In  1789  the  peasant  was,  at  best, 
entirely  ignorant  and  superstitious  and  completely 
incapable  of  political  action;  in  many  sections  of  the 
country  his  highly  inflammable  temperament  made  him 
ready  to  adopt  any  theory  which  seemed  to  promise 
change.  Frequently,  too,  the  social  depravity,  reaching 
down  to  the  bottom,  had  changed  the  tiller  of  the  soil 
to  brigand,  contraband  or  beggar;  and  this  mere  brute 
force,  to  which  circumstances  were  adding  daily,  stood 
ready  to  combine  with  any  movement  which  promised 
a  way  to  bread  and  immunity  from  an  annoying  sur- 
veillance.^^  Those  of  the  agricultural  class,  and  they 
were  not  a  few,  who  already  possessed  the  small  hold- 
ings which  have  so  often  mistakenly  been  accredited  en- 
tirely to  the  Eevolution,  caught  most  readily  at  the  new 
philosophy.^®  The  more  fortunate  peasant  was,  per- 
haps, most  ready  to  rebel,  because  the  new  principle 
of  revolution  promised  to  free  him  from  the  noble  who 
menaced  crops,  profits,  labor-time  and  even  the  very 
consumption  of  the  small  living  which  might  finally 
be  left  to  him.  However,  as  a  class,  neither  outcast  nor 
well-to-do  peasant  had  any  defined  principles  on  the 
basis  of  which  he  rebelled.  The  peasantry  then,  along 
with  the  artisans,^^  had  come  to  active  discontent,  but 

25  Taine,  op.  cit.,  II,  bk.  v. 

26  De  Tocqueville,  op.  cit.,  p.  47. 

27  The  artisans  were  a  comparatively  small  part  of  the 
nation,  and,  Paris  and  Lyons  possibly  excepted,  held  a  posi- 
tion so  little  different  from  that  of  the  peasant  that  they  can 
safely  be  classed  with  them. 


86  PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

the  class  had  only  a  partial  comprehension  of  the  politi- 
cal movement;  it  represents  an  accented  readiness  for 
the  harshest  and  swiftest  methods  of  change.^  The 
peasant  felt  instinctively  ready  to  join  a  radical  move- 
ment whenever  it  might  be  set  going,  but  his  training 
and  character  did  not  fit  him  to  reason  or  to  lead. 
Only  at  the  last  the  '^  peuple  "  learned  the  principles 
for  which  they  revolted;  those  principles  the  Third 
Estate  taught  them. 

At  the  period  in  question,  the  Third  Estate^^  had 
grown  to  the  position  necessary  to  insure  leadership, 
both  because  of  certain  native  traits  and  because 
certain  social  prejudices  existing  prior  to  1789  be- 
came at  that  later  time  the  special  means  for  rous- 
ing these  native  tendencies  and  driving  them  to 
expression.  The  Third  Estate  seems  always  to  have 
developed  along  lines  which  were  to  make  it  the 
direct  instrument  for  the  formulation  of  a  new 
social  theory.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
Principles  of  the  Eevolution  are  practically  the  expres- 
sion of  the  traditional  ideals  and  aspirations  of  the 
Third  Estate  of  France. 

The  whole  history  of  France  after  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury shows  the  class  making  a  persistent  effort  for  politi- 
cal supremacy,^^  making  this  effort,  too,  on  the  basis  of 
theories  which  ran  counter  to  those  accepted  by  the 
government  under  which  they  lived.    Always,  the  class 

28Belloc,  op.  cit.,  pp.  19-22. 

29  There  is  no  special  work  on  the  Third  Estate  known  to 
the  writer,  except  Thierry's  Essai  sur  la  formation  et  progrds 
du  Tiers-Etat.  All  the  larger  histories  have  much  matter, 
however,  bearing  upon  the  subject. 

30  Thierry,  op.  cit.,  ch.  iii  and  iv. 


THE  THIRD  ESTATE. 


87 


seems  to  have  been  the  radical  element  of  the  nation. 
From  its  earliest  appearance  in  French  history,  the 
Third  Estate  was  an  active  influence  for  change;  as  an 
order,  it  strove  insistently  for  the  right  of  self-govern- 
ment. Sagely  supporting  the  king  against  the  nobles, 
it  grew  in  strength  and  power.^^  It  first  becomes  dis- 
tinct as  a  class  after  the  feudal  regime  is  well  devel- 
oped. It  is  then  that  we  first  hear  the  burghers  rising 
against  the  two  forms  of  despotism  which  feudalism  had 
created,  the  domain  rule  of  the  nobility  and  the  parish 
rule  of  the  clergy.  By  the  twelfth  century,  the  mon- 
archical power  had  so  united  itself  with  these  hardy 
advocates  of  personal  liberty  and  the  rights  of  industry 
that  the  king  was  thus  enabled  to  control  the  nobles. 
It  was  not  long  before  the  burghers  had  managed  to 
win  bourgeois  rights,  and  so  to  shift  the  worst  inequali- 
ties of  the  feudal  regime  to  the  serf  or  peasant  class.^^ 
Bourgeois  rights  at  first  included  the  population  of 
privileged  cities  only,  but  soon  such  rights  came  to 
apply  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  villages  and  communes 
who  had  civil  rights.^^  Thus  the  class  gained  strength 
by  addition  of  numbers,  and  from  this  time  grows  to 
be  numerically  the  largest  of  the  three  upper  classes. 
During  the  next  two  centuries,  the  Third  Estate  seems 
always  to  have  had  a  definite  purpose  in  its  struggle  for 
self-assertion;  it  asks  always  for  change  in  the  direction 

31  De  Tocqueville,  op.  cit.,  p.  106. 

32  Thierry,  op.  cit.,  pp.  36,  37. 

33  Ibid.  p.  46.  *  *  *  Thus  the  contention  of  Boiteau 
(Etat  de  la  France  en  1789,  p.  225),  and  the  socialists,  who 
claim  that  the  Third  Estate  and  the  Bourgeoisie  are  not  the 
same  thing,  hardly  seems  supported  by  fact. 


88  PRTNCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

of  larger  individual  liberty  and  greater  national  unity. 
At  times  mere  class  spirit,  such  as  controlled  their  acts 
in  the  States-General  of  1484,  prompts  their  demands. 
Again,  the  reforms  the  class  asks  for,  as  for  instance 
when  Etienne  Marcel,  Jean  de  Troyes  or  Michel  de 
FHopital  represented  them,  are  actuated  by  humani- 
tarian and  wide-reaching  motives.  In  every  period, 
however,  whether  they  strove  for  the  aggrandizement 
of  their  own  order  only  or  for  the  general  welfare,  the 
Third  Estate  is  always  a  class  active  for  innovation. 

Likewise  it  rapidly  shows  itself  to  be  a  class  striving 
for  political,  intellectual  and  social  precedence.  "When 
Louis  XII  established  parlement;  when  succeeding 
kings  encouraged  commerce,  so  that  as  industrial  life 
broadened,  the  merchant  was  added  to  the  craftsman 
to  be  again  supplemented  by  the  financier  and  the 
farmer-general;  when  religious  wars  broke  down  other 
social  distinctions  for  a  time,  and  the  Renaissance 
created  a  world  of  letters  where  there  were  no  classes, 
the  bourgeoisie  seized  upon  each  of  these  events  as 
entering  wedges  for  their  own  advancement.  Judicial 
power  and  financial  power,  the  two  kinds  of  influence 
which  after  all  count  most  in  determining  the  character 
of  the  modern  nation,  soon  came  to  be  entirely  the 
possession  of  the  Third  Estate.^*  The  Cahier  of  the 
States-General  last  (1614)  preceding  that  of  1789,  bears 
evidence  to  the  growing  jealousy  of  the  noblesse  who 
begin  to  perceive  this  rising  power  of  the  Third  Estate. 

After  the  discontinuance  of  the  States-General,  the 
corporate  political  power  of  the  bourgeoisie  narrows  to 

34  Thierry,  op.  cit.,  p.  106, 


THE  THIRD  ESTATE!.  §9 

such  social  control  as  it  can  exert  through  parlement, 
yet  the  class  continues  to  grow  as  a  vigorous  social 
force.  By  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  promotion 
or  purchase  had  won  for  the  bourgeoisie  the  highest 
administrative  posts  in  the  kingdom.  Saint  Simon 
called  the  reign  of  Louis  XIY  a  reign  of  low  bourgeoisie, 
("  regno  de  vile  bourgeoisie  ")  so  great  did  he  conceive 
the  influence  of  the  class  to  be  at  that  time.  The  class 
strove  for  education,  and  from  among  its  numbers  came 
the  best  writers  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIY ;  but  most  often 
knowledge,  too,  was  sought  as  a  means  to  social  power. 
Just  as  to-day,  so  after  the  sixteenth  century,  sons  of 
the  poorer  bourgeoisie  might  be  seen  crowding  to  the 
universities,  eagerly  striving  for  the  degree  these  gave, 
not  so  much  for  the  love  of  learning  as  for  the  econo- 
mic or  social  position  it  might  bring.^^  Thus,  what- 
ever they  undertook,  whether  the  law,  the  industrial  life 
or  that  purely  intellectual,  the  bourgeoisie  sought  to 
make  it  a  means  to  political  power. 

It  remains  to  describe,  in  a  few  words,  the  position 
of  the  class  from  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV  up  to  the  time 
of  the  Revolution.  Most  of  the  social  innovations  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  whether  in  religion,  in  art,  in  let- 
ters or  in  industry,  were  begun  or,  at  any  rate,  most 
warmly  supported  by  the  bourgeoisie.  It  was  they 
who  fathered  and  fostered  Jansenism,  a  doctrine  stimu- 
lating to  reconstruction  by  its  very  narrowness.  Des- 
cartes, Pascal,  Corneille  —  in  brief,  all  the  great  names 
among  the  literary  celebrities  at  the  end  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  excepting  only  La  Rochefoucauld  and 

35  Thierry,  p.  107. 


90  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCS  REVOLUTION. 

Madame  de  Sevigny,  belonged  to  the  middle  class. 
Nearly  every  financial  enterprise  had  a  bourgeois  for 
its  sponsor;  and  the  commerce  and  manufacture  of  the 
country  was  practically  in  their  hands,  except,  perhaps, 
during  the  Eegency,  when  the  financial  successes  made 
possible  for  a  time  by  Law's  schemes,  drew  noble,  bour- 
geois and  serving-man  alike  into  the  vortex  of  specula- 
tion. When  the  centralization  of  the  administrative 
government  had  reached  its  height,  when  Law  could 
write  that  ^^  this  kingdom  is  governed  by  thirty  inten- 
dants:  *  *  *  qj^  whom  depend  the  happiness  or 
discomfort  of  these  provinces,  their  abundance  or  their 
sterility, "2^  it  is  interesting  to  remember  that  these 
intendants  were  almost  all  of  the  bourgeoisie.^^ 

However,  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, the  mass  of  the  Third  Estate  had  dropped  into  a 
stolid  indifference  with  regard  to  their  political  rights. 
Only  parlement  and  Jansenism  express  in  deeds  the  old- 
time  objection  of  the  class  to  absolutism.  The  phil- 
osophers are  a  small  circle  within  the  order  —  a  circle 
dreaming  of  a  well-ordered  logical  sort  of  government, 
where  all  men  should  come  to  a  bourgeois  level. 
Throughout  the  century,  the  class  grows  rich;^^  up  to 
the  Revolution  it  continues  to  hold  the  majority  of 
places,  but  it  contents  itself  with  administrative  power, 
and  for  eighty  years  consents  to  purchase  its  rights, — 

36Lavergne.  Les  Assemblees  provinciales  sous  Louis  XIV, 
p.  5. 

37  The  same  held  true  as  well  fifty  years  later  as  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  century.  The  governors  were  nobles,  but  all 
the  power  and  political  prestige  belonged  to  the  Intendants. 
Comp.  Taine,  op.  cit.,  I,  p.  100  et  seq.,  ed.  1899. 

38Taine,  op.  cit.,  I,  pp.  402-404,  ed. 


THE  THIRD  ESTATE.  9j^ 

such,  for  example,  as  its  municipal  rights, —  over  and 
over  again  from  each  successive  sovereign.^^  As  a  class 
the  Tiers-Etat  seems  absorbed  in  acquiring  wealth  or 
in  striving  after  place  in  the  government  or  among  the 
petty  noblesse. 

The  result  of  this  ambition  was  a  rise  of  the  class  in 
place  and  prestige.  The  actual  power  of  the  Third 
Estate  grew  to  be  undoubted;  its  pride  grew  likewise; 
but  certain  social  conditions,  which  must  of  necessity 
chafe  that  pride,  did  not  change.  The  manners  of  a 
regime  are  possibly  a  small  thing;  but  when  men  have 
wealth  and  influence,  when  they  have  the  judicial  and 
administrative  control  of  the  nation,  when  they  are  as 
cultured  as  any  class  in  the  kingdom,^  a  social  code, 
which  refuses  to  recognize  their  true  position,  is  a  se- 
rious irritant.  An  "  etiquette  as  rigorous  as  a  relig- 
ion "^^  shut  the  bourgeoisie  from  equality  with  the  noble 
and  clergy.  The  petty  and  purely  arbitrary  character 
of  the  barrier  which  kept  the  Third  Estate  subordinate, 
made  the  distinction  the  less  endurable.  If  the  bour- 
geoisie became  eager  for  change  and  the  chief  factor  in 
revolution,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  fact  that 
government  continued  to  countenance  and  justify  the 
arbitrary  and  humiliating  distinctions  of  this  social  code 
gave  much  of  the  impetus  necessary  to  drive  the  class 
to  such  a  position.  The  bourgeoisie  were  undoubt- 
edly irritated  by  the  instability  and  uncertainty  of  the 
tax;  but  their  prosperity  was  great,  and  they  might 

3»  Thierry,  op.  cit.,  passim. 

40  Von  Hoist  puts  it  well.  "  Differences  of  rank  continue  to 
be  embroidered  on  coats,  but  they  more  and  more  cease  to 
be  engraved  on  the  thought  and  feeling."     op.  cit.,  I,  p.  57. 

41  Belloc.    Life  of  Danton,  p.  16,  ed.  1899. 


92  PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

have  stood  the  tinkering  with  the  tax  system  for  a 
longer  time  had  the  government  shown  any  disposition 
to  recognize  their  social  position.  The  logic  of  Rous- 
seau and  the  Physiocrats  gave  the  last  spur  to  pride  al- 
ready stung  past  endurance  by  regulations  which  pro- 
hibited men  of  brains  and  wealth  from  being  army  of- 
ficers, church  prelates  or  provincial  governors.  The 
Third  Estate  rose  to  ask  for  abolition  of  privilege  and 
liberty  of  thought,  because  government  refused  to  recog- 
nize any  laws  which  would  change  the  distasteful  situa- 
tion. 

To  sum  up  this  brief  estimate  of  the  relation  of  the 
Third  Estate  to  the  revolutionary  principles.  The 
revolutionary  spirit  of  the  bourgeoisie  drew  much  in- 
spiration from  a  fierce  impatience  of  the  slights  put 
upon  them  by  and  in  the  name  of  the  nobility.  It  was 
the  outraged  pride  thus  aroused  which  strengthened 
the  rising  contempt  for  an  ineffective  government  and 
finally  made  the  bourgeoisie  the  spokesmen  for 
the  new  doctrines  of  the  philosophers.  Social  condi- 
tions now  argued  for  the  desirability  of  principles 
which,  in  a  less  pressing  time,  might  have  seemed  to 
most  of  the  class  mere  abstract  reasoning.  When,  by 
the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  certain 
amount  of  prosperity  had  made  the  hatred  of  meaning- 
less class  distinctions  sufficiently  pronounced;  when  im- 
patience with  the  uncertain  and  heavy  tax  system  stirred 
once  more  the  desire  for  the  old  right  to  a  part  in  ad- 
justing the  tax  levy,  then,  and  not  until  then,  the  new 
philosophy  which  innovators  of  the  class  had  been 
eagerly  preaching,  came  to  be  the  voice  of  the  class  it- 
self.   The  eighteenth  century  principles  which  a  section 


PARIS  AND  ITS  INFLUENCE.  93 

of  the  Third  Estate  had  fathered  were  then  sifted  out 
and  adopted  by  the  whole  Third  Estate.  The  republics 
of  Sparta  and  Eome  and  the  new  social  and  political 
philosophy  of  their  own  land  took  on  new  and  formerly 
undreamed  of  possibilities  when  men  began  to  feel  keenly 
the  cramping  character  of  the  institutions  under  which 
they  lived.  Principles  of  reform  which  chamber  poli- 
ticians had  formulated  were  now  enthusiastically  em- 
braced, because  the  instincts  and  present  interests  of 
the  whole  class  fell  into  line  with  those  principles.  It 
was  —  and  the  contradiction  is  by  no  means  a  unique 
one  in  history  —  because  the  Third  Estate  aimed  at 
social  and  political  supremacy  that  they  became  converts 
to  and  partisans  of  theories  which  held  that  no  man 
had  special  rights  to  such  social  supremacy.  A  class 
rousing  with  renewed  vigor  to  strive  for  its  political 
liberty,  was  now  ready  to  make  a  supreme  struggle 
to  gain  the  goal  toward  which  it  had  always  been  in- 
stinctively aiming. 

III. 

Before  they  can  become  the  positive  rules  for  the  con- 
duct of  a  given  society,  new  principles  must  have  more 
than  a  hope  to  ground  on,  a  bitter  grievance  as  motive 
and  a  social  class  to  stand  sponsor  for  them.  To  give  the 
doctrines  which  they  have  adopted  an  effective  political 
form,  it  is  necessary  that  the  class  which  supports  these 
new  doctrines  should  find  means  to  concentrate  and 
organize  their  ideas,  and  should  have  been  able  to  win 
emotional  support  from  an  effective  part  of  the  nation. 
The  principles  of  the  Revolution  found  the  necessary 
concentration,  organization  and  popularization  in  the 


94  PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

conditions  of  Paris  life  and  thought.  A  brief  sketch  of 
the  more  important  social  influences  in  the  capital  of 
France  must  then  be  added  to  the  tale  of  the  various 
influences  which  made  for  the  realization  of  the  new 
radical  doctrine. 

It  may  or  may  not  be  true  that,  as  Arthur  Young 
asserted,^  Paris  was  the  head  and  front  of  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  even  in  1789.  It  is,  however, 
undoubted  that  Paris  made  the  Revolution  of  '93.*^ 
Paris,  with  its  many  and  interesting  aspects  of  social 
life,  furnished  the  final  arguments  that  did  away  with 
hesitating  opinions.  In  the  great  metropolis,  already 
the  center  of  European  art  and  manners,  men  found 
the  courage  which  comes  from  a  sense  of  convictions 
shared.  The  various  phases  of  social  life  which  the 
city  included,  were  so  many  agencies  cooperating  to 
create  that  consensus  of  opinion  which,  organized 
finally  into  the  turbulent  sections  of  '93,  brought  a  new 
ethical  and  political  system  into  France.  The  salons, 
the  clubs,  the  cafes  of  Paris,  the  theaters,  the  news- 
papers, the  very  streets,  became  so  many  mediums  for 
that  association  between  man  and  man,  by  which  ex- 
change of  ideas  gives  to  each  one  a  new  certainty  as  to 
the  soundness  of  his  own  theories  or  brings  wavering 
minds  into  the  camp  of  strong  conviction. 

So  much  has  been  written  concerning  the  French 
salons  that  they  need  little  more  than  mention.  For 
a  century  or  more  the  salons  had  been  the  "talent 
factories  "  of  the  intellectual  world  of  France.     To  the 

42  Arthur  Young,  op.  cit.,  p.  229. 

43  Comp.  Cherest.     La  Chute  de  I'ancien  Regime,  1. 


SALONS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  95 

salons  of  the  eighteenth  century  men  had  brought  their 
new  ideas  for  discussion,  for  criticism  or  for  applause; 
in  the  salons  of  that  age  along  with  flirtation  or  worse, 
the  broadest  thinking  and  the  most  brilliant  literature 
of  the  century  had  found  expression.  But  the  salons 
in  1789,  while  presenting,  like  their  predecessors,  the 
same  general  character  of  gilded  chambers  and  cul- 
tured women,  were  none  the  less  intrinsically  different; 
the  salons  of  '89  had  become  consciously  political. 
Canons  of  literary  art,  questions  of  abstract  right  and 
wrong,  were  put  aside,  and  debate  now  turned  eagerly 
on  the  possibilities  of  a  social  reorganization  on  the 
basis  of  certain  principles. 

This  political  character  of  the  salons  of  1789  is  easily 
recognizable  when  the  leading  drawing-rooms  of  the 
day  are  recalled.^^  If  one  passes  by  such  reunions  as 
those  at  Madame  de  Chambras  or  Madame  de  Sabran, 
where  the  reactionaries  gathered,  and  puts  aside  the 
salons  of  Madame  !N'ecker,  where  conservatism  tried  to 
keep  alive  after  conservatism  had  become  impossible, 
then  it  is  not  only  politics  but  radical  politics  which 
hold  the  floor  in  all  the  other  prominent  salons.  In  the 
rooms  of  Madame  de  Beauharnais,  Madame  Helvetius, 
Madame  de  Genlis,  Madame  Talma  or  Mile,  de  Meri- 
court,  each  hostess  had  in  her  own  way  taken  eagerly  to 
politics  and  to  the  notion  of  the  Eevolution,  and  the 
deputies  and  their  satellites,  who  were  to  be  the  active 
instruments  in  the  formulation  of  the  principles  of 
revolution,  found  a  welcome  at  one  or  the  other  of 

44  De  Goncourt.  Histoire  de  la  Soci^t6  frangaise  pendant 
la  Revolution,  pp.  10-12;  pp.  13-14. 


9^  PRtnclPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

these  drawing-rooms.  Talent  and  originality  fre- 
quented Madame  de  Beauharnais;  opportunists  and 
demagogues  found  the  rooms  of  that  "  bavarde  de  la 
morale,^'  Madame  de  Genlis  most  to  their  liking;  the 
"  artistic  ^'  politician  went  to  Madame  Talma's  quaint 
room,  and  the  bohemians  all  took  a  turn  at  Mile,  de 
Mericourt's.  But  no  matter  which  lady  was  favored, 
the  talk  at  any  one  of  these  salons  was  politics;  in  all 
cases  the  result  was  to  feed  high  the  new  hope  and  to 
increase  the  certainty  that  the  old  institutions  must 
give  way  to  a  new  era. 

Thus  in  a  certain  way,  the  salons  all  served  an  impor- 
tant purpose;  they  emphasized  the  drift  of  opinion  and 
helped  to  concentrate  it.  A  place  where  men  can  air 
their  beliefs,  and,  by  force  of  defense  of  them,  grow 
strong  in  them  at  the  same  time  that  they  convince 
others,  is  no  mean  aid  to  the  spread  of  the  new  doctrine ; 
and  the  salons  of  '89  were  just  that  sort  of  aid.  A 
visitor  was  never  more  interesting  in  a  Parisian  draw- 
ing-room of  that  time  than  when  recounting  the  most 
recent  occurrences  in  the  Assembly  or  telling  of  the 
probable  program  for  the  morrow.  The  talk  turned 
on  little  else.  To  be  the  lion  of  one  of  these  drawing- 
rooms  it  needed  only  to  be  able  to  set  forth  in  good 
style  the  Rights  of  Man  and  the  wrongs  of  the  French 
nation.  When  it  is  remembered  that  it  became  quite 
customary  for  young  men  to  recite  to  an  eager  and 
admiring  circle  the  motion  or  speech  which  they  were 
to  give  in  the  Assembly  the  next  day,  it  is  easily  credible 
that  some  of  these  gatherings  really  were  ^^  the  nucleus 
of  the  national  assembly,  the  nucleus  whence  came  the 


CLUBS   OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 


97 


germs  which,  made  fruitful  by  public  opinion,  have  pro- 
duced liberty."^'^  Everything  goes  to  prove  that  the 
salons  were  an  important  factor  in  kindling  enthusiasm 
for  new  doctrines  and  winning  allegiance  to  them. 

The  clubs  of  Paris  were  not,  like  the  salons,  an  old 
and  recognized  institution  of  social  life ;  they  may  fairly 
be  said  to  have  been  born  of  the  new  philosophy.  Not 
until  late  in  the  century,  when  a  new  sense  of  interest 
in  practical  political  problemcj  caught  and  held  them, 
did  Frenchmen  begin  to  draw  together  in  small  coteries 
for  the  discussion  of  such  problems.  Even  in  their 
origin  the  clubs  were  an  expression  of  the  new  spirit. 
In  the  beginning  the  existing  ordinances  forced  those 
who  desired  to  gather  together  to  discuss  political  prob- 
lems, to  put  on  the  appearance  of  groups  of  persons 
assembling  in  reading-rooms  or  attending  purely  philo- 
sophical or  literary  gatherings  in  private  homes.  Soon 
all  over  the  country  there  were  such  reunions,  ostensi- 
bly social,  but  in  reality  political  or  revolutionary  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree.^^ 

These  clubs  gave  a  new  and  vigorous  impulse  to  the 
revolutionary  movement.  On  the  one  hand  they  served 
as  training-schools  for  political  leaders,  who  up  to  that 
time  had  been  unaccustomed  to  anything  but  academic 
oratory;  on  the  other,  they  were  the  means  by  which 

45 "  L*ceuf  de  I'assembl^e  nationale,  Foeuf  d'od  sont  sortis 
les  germes  qui,  f^condes  par  I'opinion  publique,  ont  produit 
ks  fruits  de  la  liberty."     (De  Goncourt,  op.  cit;,  p.  12.) 

46Comp.  De  Goncourt,  op.  cit.,  p.  15;  Bailly,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I, 
p.  10;  Michelet,  Histoire  de  la  Revolution  francaise,  II,  p. 
248.  *^ 


98  PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION,  \ 

these  leaders  were  finally  able  to  play  upon  the  discon- 
tent of  the  Paris  masses  and  turn  it  to  account. 

To  get  convincing  evidence  of  how  the  clubs  gave 
the  leaders  of  the  Revolution  not  only  their  first  les- 
sons in  politics  but  their  final  opinions  as  well,  it  needs 
only  to  turn  over  the  reports  of  the  greatest  society 
of  them  all,  the  reports  of  the  Jacobin  Club.*'^  The 
gradual  alteration  in  the  character  of  the  speeches 
which  were  given  there,  evidentes  strikingly  the  de- 
velopment which  took  place  among  the  speakers. 
The  "  conferences "  change  from  philosophic  exposi- 
tion of  the  Rights  of  Man  and  of  the  Social  Contract 
and  become  well-rounded  political  orations  or  fiery  out- 
bursts of  specious  mob  oratory.  And  this  club  repre- 
sents the  true  center  where  the  revolutionary  principles 
developed.  For  what  though  the  Feuillants,  the  Cor- 
deliers and  the  Cercle  Social  were  each  in  a  way  force- 
ful, they  were  the  extremes;  the  center  and  sum  of  the 
revolutionary  theory  was  at  the  Jacobin  Club.  From 
the  Jacobins  came  the  protesting  voice  which  swept 
away  old  forms  and  the  convincing  principles  which 
guided  them  to  new;  it  was  the  Jacobin  Society  which 
provided  the  arm  that  reached  out  to  crush  all  impedi- 
ment to  change.  The  history  of  the  Jacobin  Society 
is  the  history  of  the  Revolution  in  miniature  —  the  his- 
tory of  the  Revolution  in  its  most  interesting,  that  is, 
its  intellectual  aspect.  The  story  of  this  club  is,  in 
short,  the  last  page  in  the  history  of  the  revolutionary 
principles.     The  chronicle  of  the  Jacobin  Club  tells  of 

47  The  most  inclusive  work  on  the  Jacobins  known  to  the 
author  is  Aulard's  La  Society  des  Jacobins.  Paris,  1889-1898. 
6  vols. 


CLUBS   OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  99 

men  slowly  gaining  positive  ideas  by  virtue  of  long 
nightly  debates,  of  men  gradually  finding  at  the  club 
the  capacity  to  move  others,  and  then  going  out  to 
become  the  leaders  in  a  parliamentary  struggle  for  the 
ideas  they  had  acquired.  When  the  speeches  at  the 
Jacobins'  for  any  given  time  are  set  alongside  those  of 
the  parliamentary  records  for  the  same  time,  an  in- 
teresting fact  becomes  clear.  What  the  leaders  said 
in  the  assemblies  they  had  usually  repeated  at  the 
Jacobin  Club.  It  was  then,  as  they  became  sure  of 
the  support  of  the  hundreds  who  each  night  crowded 
the  large  library  of  the  Jacobin  monastery  in  the  little 
rue  Saint-Hyacinthe,  that  the  leaders  of  the  Eevolution 
developed  the  daring  and  force  which  changed  them 
from  social  reformers  to  busy  politicians.  From  this 
gray  store-room  of  the  recorded  thought  of  men,  now 
changed  to  an  auditorium,  daily  growing  more  and 
more  tumultuous,  a  new  thought-life  was  sent  vibrating 
through  France. 

When  it  is  question  of  the  clubs  as  to  the  means  to 
get  the  ear  of  the  masses,  the  Jacobins  shares  the  hon- 
ors with  the  Cordeliers  and  the  Cercle  Social.  At  the 
Jacobins,  Mirabeau,  Barnave,  Yergniaud,  Eobespierre, 
came  one  after  the  other  "to  lead  men  by  the  ears," 
but  all  the  clubs  did  a  conspicuous  work  of  propaganda. 
Nightly,  at  the  Cordelier,  Danton's  voice  rang  out,  driv- 
ing home  a  new  patriotism  and  a  new  courage  to  the 
heart  and  brain  of  every  small  workman  and  fiery  stu- 
dent who  heard  him.  Nightly,  Claude  Fauchet  preached 
Rousseau  or  communism  to  hysterical  men  and  women 
at  the  Cercle  Social,  and  fostered  that  extreme  wing  of 
revolution  which   culminated  in  Babouvism.     Besides 


IQQ       PkmctPLM  OP  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

serving  as  a  means  to  define  the  politician's  point  of 
view,  the  clubs  were  then  so  many  means  to  spread  dis- 
content and  a  new  creed  among  the  already  alienated 
lower  classes.  At  the  clubs,  the  Paris  masses  added 
the  will  to  do,  to  their  recently  acquired  will  to  think 
for  themselves. 

Perhaps  no  one  of  these  clubs  made  for  revolution  as 
directly  as  did  the  "  Club  des  Enrages,"  the  name 
often  given  to  the  gatherings  at  the  Palais  Royal.  If 
the  more  organized  societies  fed  the  will  to  do,  the  hand 
to  strike  for  the  new  principles  was  found  at  the  Club 
des  Enrages.  Here  Camille  Desmoulins  and  his  friends 
won  the  cooperation  of  all  that  was  disaffected  in  Paris ; 
here,  when  revolt  began,  those  whom  famine  had  nearly 
maddened  or  the  weak  municipality  had  stupidly  in- 
censed, the  hungry,  the  vicious,  the  resentful,  all  empty- 
pocketed  and  burning  with  mere  physical  smart,  heard 
a  story  to  their  liking.  No  fee  or  form  of  enrolment 
kept  this  most  factious  part  of  the  city  population  from 
loitering  in  and  listening  with  uproarious  approval  as 
men,  mounted  on  chairs,  criticised  the  acts  of  the  king 
and  the  Assembly,  laughed  at  the  new  mayor  or  decried 
Lafayette.  Most  unclub-like  of  clubs,  this  was  the 
strongest  agent  for  inoculating  the  masses  with  ideas  of 
democracy  —  or  ochlocracy;  and  it  was  here  that  a 
power  was  roused  which  presently  became  a  driving- 
force  for  the  leaders  themselves. 

The  Club  des  Enrages  is  a  composite  which,  when 
analyzed,  resolves  into  a  number  of  cafes  fronting  on 
a  large  and  beautiful  court.  Each  of  these  cafes  by 
itself,  along  with  many  others  scattered  about  the  big 


CAF^S  OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  IQl 

city,  came  conspicuously  into  the  foreground  as  a  debat- 
ing place,  where  revolutionary  principles  were  knocked 
about  in  a  tempest  of  opinion. 

The  cafes  were  an  influence  more  directly  emotional 
than  either  salon  or  club  proper,  yet  emphatically  an 
influence  aiding  the  selection  and  organization  of  the 
new  theories.  At  all  times  during  the  past  two  hun- 
dred years  or  more,  the  cafe  has  been  the  chief  loitering- 
place  in  France.  Here,  in  ordinary  times,  as  they  sip 
their  coffee  or  stronger  drink,  chat  with  an  acquaint- 
ance or  watch  the  street  life  drifting  past  them, 
Frenchmen  catch  the  current  social  idea,  and  thus 
modify  and  make  socially  effective  their  individual 
opinions.  In  1789,  the  social  idea  was  everywhere  ask- 
ing for  a  hearing  with  an  insistence  which  gave  it  a 
marked  determinative  force.  In  face  of  the  swelling 
revolt,  the  cafe  of  1789  changed  its  whole  character  in 
a  brief  period. 

The  swift  transformation  of  the  cafe  from  a  peace- 
able loitering-place  to  a  more  or  less  strongly  organized 
party  stronghold  is  one  of  the  entertaining  stories  of 
the  Revolution.  How  the  cafes  had  been  severely  super- 
vised up  to  1789,  so  that  no  political  discussions  were 
permitted  in  them,  is  as  well  known  as  the  way  in 
which,  when  that  surveillance  ceased  during  I^ecker's 
administration,  these  same  cafes  became  "public 
schools  of  democracy  and  insurrection."*®  The  non- 
partisan cafe  was  not  even  tolerated,  as  the  few  learned 
who,  in  these  troublous  times,  sought,  at  the  Cafe  Flore, 
a  place  where  they  might  peaceably  have  no  opinions; 

48  Sallier.  Annales  francaises,  p.  241.  Quoted  in  Cherest, 
op.  cit.,  Vpl,  II,  p.  219, 


102        PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

they  soon  found  themselves  forced  to  take  a  share  in 
public  affairs  or  to  disband.*^  The  cafe,  as  an  element 
of  social  life,  made  way  for  the  cafe  become  the  most 
lively  exponent  of  the  political  situation. 

In  the  clubs,  the  debate  centered  about  principles  of 
ethics  and  government;  in  the  cafes,  the  fight  had 
rather  to  do  with  small  differences  of  opinion  and 
the  relative  merit  of  party  leaders.  One  pictures 
the  applause  as  the  habitues  of  these  cafes  heard  their 
own  sentiments  voiced  by  the  orators  who  were  regularly 
established  at  most  of  them.  It  is  easy  to  guess  how 
the  audience  got  new  courage  for  their  convictions,  as 
they  listened  to  the  stimulating  speakers  mounted  on 
table-tops;  how  their  opinions  strengthened  as  they 
aided  to  draw  up  hastily  improvised  resolutions,  and 
how  some  must  have  learned  what  they  were  fighting 
for,  as  they  danced  about  the  nightly  bonfires  which 
kept  their  enthusiasm  at  gala-day  pitch.  The  daily 
challenges  which  the  five  o'clock  "  deliberative  clubs '' 
sent  from  Zoppi's  or  the  Cafe  des  Arts,  the  Cafe  du 
Bourbon  or  the  Cafe  de  Mirabeau  (Tonneau),  the  money 
summarily  collected  from  the  frequenters  of  these  places 
and  sent  to  the  militia  for  arms,  were  each  in  a  way  so 
many  indications  of  a  newly-born  idea  of  concerted 
action  in  order  to  the  political  end.  The  hot  debates, 
the  bluster  and  stir  which  made  the  Cafe  de  Foi,^^  the 
portico  of  the  Kevolution,  the  very  center  of  sedition 
and  uproar,  where  old  institutions  were  satirized  and 
reforms  tumultuously  advocated,  are  for  the  present 

49  De  Goncourt,  op.  cit.,  pp.  207-209. 

50  Ibid,  p.  202. 


THEATERS    OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  IQ3 

study  less  a  picture  of  daily  collision  between  royalist 
and  republican  than  a  scene  which  evidences  the  growth 
of  strong  political  feeling  and  a  final  boiling-over  of 
discontent.  It  seems  impossible  to  overestimate  the 
part  of  the  cafe  in  the  work  of  disseminating  the  new 
opinion  by  way  of  shouting  it,  while  at  the  same  time 
ridiculing  the  old. 

A  word  here  with  regard  to  the  theaters,  whose  in- 
fluence was  of  a  kind  similar  to  that  of  the  cafes.  It 
is  a  fact  old  in  the  history  of  changes  in  national 
thought,  that  the  play's  the  thing  by  which  to  spread 
the  contagion  of  a  new  idea  and  nurse  a  young  en- 
thusiasm to  the  point  of  action.  In  1789,  as  at  any 
time  in  French  history,  the  Paris  playhouse  did  its  full 
share  in  voicing  public  opinion  and  playing  upon  the 
emotions  of  the  masses.  From  the  time  that  "  Figaro,"^^ 
after  four  years  of  struggle  with  censorship,  set  Paris 
covertly  mocking  at  the  old  regime  and  the  inconsis- 
tencies it  presented  between  men's  thoughts  and  acts, 
the  stage  was  used  more  and  more  boldly  to  scout  the 
tottering  system.  When  it  is  recalled  that,  of  the 
thirty-five  theaters  which  nightly  during  the  Eevolution 
opened  their  doors  to  Parisians  of  all  classes,  only  four 
were  royalists,  it  is  not  hard  to  guess  the  direction 
which  the  opinions  of  the  theater-goers  were  likely  to 
take.  How  "  Charles  IX  "^^  g^^  i}^q  example  for  count- 
less "pieces  de  circonstances "  of  less  literary  value, 
but  perhaps   as  much  immediate  influence,   is  a  bit 

51  First  produced  in  1784. 

52  M.  J.  Chenier;  produced  first  on  November  4,  1789.  The 
De  Goncourts  call  it  "  le  drapeau  de  la  Revolution."  Cf.,  op. 
cit.,  pp.  48-53. 


104       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

of  history  which  always  goes  along  with  the  descrip- 
tion of  how  tliese  plays  taught  lessons  of  patriotism 
and  hatred  of  tyranny  and  roused  or  gratified  the  pas- 
sions of  the  day.  As  the  clubs  and  political  bodies  came 
to  a  clearer  understanding  of  what  they  were  working 
for,  the  stage  took  up  their  opinions,  and  by  means  of 
the  brilliant  costumes  and  stirring  events  of  a  past  or 
present  time,  put  club  harangues  into  a  poetic  form 
which  sent  the  ideas  these  advocated,  no  longer  to  the 
intellects  of  the  hearers,  but  directly  to  their  hearts. 
The  drama's  share  in  giving  form  to  the  revolutionary 
principles  is  then  by  no  means  to  be  forgotten. 

The  newspapers  of  the  time  took  a  conspicuous 
part  in  the  work  of  propaganda.  The  average  man 
reads  for  one  or  both  of  two  reasons;  he  either  seeks 
to  find  his  opinions,  put  definitely  and  in  a  way  he 
himself  is  incapable  of  putting  them,  or  he  wants  to 
feel  a  sense  of  comradeship  in  his  ideas.  If,  then,  in  a 
time  of  revolt,  there  is  a  greedy  grasping  for  daily  lit- 
erature of  a  radical  kind,  it  is  because  men  are  become 
eager  to  see  their  own  longings  for  change  worded  by 
those  who  are  less  voiceless  than  they,  or  because  they 
are  keen  to  know  how  much  and  how  widely  their  half- 
confessed  iconoclastic  ideas  are  the  general  opinion. 
Similarly,  when  certain  temperaments  are  possessed  by 
a  new  ideal  which  they  desire  to  make  current,  they 
find  putting  it  into  a  brief  and  popular  form  the  easiest 
and  most  suggestive  means  for  spreading  such  an  ideal. 
The  newspaper  and  pamphlet  are  then  likely  to  be  most 
prolific  and  the  bes-t  indication  -of  public  feeling  in 
times  .of  sc^cial  storm  and  stress ;  the  remarkable  popijr 


NEWSPAPERS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION,  105 

larity  of  the  newspaper  as  well  as  the  countless  num- 
ber published  during  the  revolutionary  period  seems 
thus  to  be  accounted  for. 

As  facts  of  practical  life,  the  French  newspaper  and 
the  notion  of  democracy  came  to  France  at  about  the 
same  time.^^  The  French  Journal  came  full  grown  to  an 
eager  public.  By  this  novel  means,  clever  men,  most 
of  whom  posited  democracy  as  the  prerequisite  to  any 
successful  social  life,  ably  joined,  in  the  preaching  and 
teaching  of  the  new  theories.  At  any  period  of  its  his- 
tory, nothing  more  partisan  than  the  French  newspaper 
can  be  conceived  of,  and  the  pioneers  of  '89  were  the 
hardiest  partisans  of  their  race.  It  is  easy  to  imagine 
how  flagging  sympathies  must  have  been  stirred  to  en- 
ergetic alliance  by  the  feverish  calls  to  liberty  and 
equality  which  the  "  Revolutions  de  France  et  de  Bra- 
bant," the  "  Revolutions  de  Paris,"  "  L'Ami  de  Peuple," 
"Pere  Duchesne,"  and  the  dozen  similar  publications 
sent  out  daily  to  a  listening  Paris.  The  small  circula- 
tion and  uncertain  existence  of  the  court  papers,  such 
as  the  "Actes  des  Apotres  "  or  the  "Apocalypse  "  leave 
little  doubt  that  early  in  the  struggle,  majority  opinion 
in  Paris  had  gone  over  to  the  notion  of  revolt.  His- 
tory, telling  of  the  eagerness  with  which  these  daily 
publications  were  bought  and  read,  and  of  the  sacri- 
fices which  men  and  women  made  in  order  to  buy  them, 
proves  the  increasing  popularity  of  the  democracy  they 
preached  and  the  extending  reach  of  their  influence. 
It  is  clear  enough  that  the  journals  swiftly  became  "  the 

53  De  Goncourt,  op.  cit.,  p.  252.  "  Fils  de  *89,  le  journal 
n*a  pas  d'enfance."  Comp.  also,  Blanc.  La  Revolution  Fran- 
Saise,  III,  p.  115. 


jQg       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

cry  of  war,  the  provocation,  the  attack,  the  defense;  the 
national  assembly  where  everyone  speaks  and  replies, 
and  which  furnishes  the  theme  of  the  other  national  as- 
sembly; *  *  *  tribune  of  paper,  more  listened  to, 
more  ringing,  more  reigning,  than  the  tribune  where 
Mirabeau  apostrophized  or  Maury  replied."^ 

The  influence  of  the  pamphlet  fell  short  of  that 
of  the  newspaper  in  so  far  as  the  public  who  reads  long 
articles  is  made  up  of  fewer  persons  than  that  which 
reads  publications  more  brief  and  abstract  in  tenor. 
The  sudden  appearance  of  the  astonishing  number  of 
pamphlets  has  been  called  "a  particular  crisis  in  the 
midst  of  a  general  crisis/'^  Men  still  marvel  at  the 
enormous  output  of  pamphletary  literature,^  and,  turn- 
ing over  the  five  thousand  and  more  specimens  of  them, 
which  remain  to  represent  this  type  of  revolutionary 
writings,  they  marvel  also  at  the  unanimity  of  opinion, 
the  boldness  and  simplicity  of  idea  which  characterizes 
most  of  them.  Usually  the  pamphlet  was  the  voice  of 
the  noblemen  or  clergjrmen,  who  represented  the  revo- 
lutionary minority  in  the  upper  classes.  The  most 
moderate  asked  for  immediate  and  complete  abolition 
of  many  social  abuses;  the  radical  sort  asked  for  an 
entire  alteration  in  social  organization. 

The  brochures  most  frequently  read  were  popular 
expositions  of  the  ideas  of  the  eighteenth  century  phil- 

54  De  Goncourt,  op.  cit.,  chap,  x,  p.  252. 

55Cherest,  op.  cit.,  II,  p.  248. 

56  The  publication  of  the  pamphlets  began  with  the  call  for 
the  Assembly  of  the  Notables;  in  the  last  month  of  1788  there 
were  2,500  collected.  For  a  good  study  of  pamphlets,  with  re- 
gard to  the  theory  they  contain,  see  Lichtenberger,  Le  Social- 
isme  et  La  Revolution  Frangaise,  pp.  31-54. 


PAMPHLETS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  ^Qf 

osophers,  with  additional  suggestions,  as  how  to  apply 
those  ideas  directly  to  existing  conditions.  In  a 
word,  the  pamphlets  were  the  final  literary  presenta- 
tion of  those  principles  which  the  thought  of  the  cen- 
tury had  developed. 

Some  of  these  pamphlets  taught  to  the  masses  what 
the  "  Contrat  Social  "  had  taught  their  leaders.  Who- 
soever reads  the  hold  demand  for  the  rights  of  the 
Third  Estate  framed  in  the  pamphlet,  whose  very  title 
''  What  is  the  Third  Estate? ''  ("  Qu'est  ce  que  le  Tiers- 
Etat?  '^)  stirred  a  long-forgotten  question,  reads  Eous- 
seau,  as  well  as  Sieyes.  The  cool  assertion  of  the 
rights  of  the  Third  Estate,  the  daring  elevation  of  the 
caste  to  the  first  place  in  the  realm,  the  positive  proofs 
which  its  history  is  said  to  furnish  that  it  is  right  and 
necessary  for  the  Third  Estate  to  hold  first  place  in  the 
legislation,  these  are  the  important  facts  which  the 
pamphlet  carries  for  our  purpose.  And  when  others^'' 
go  to  greater  lengths,  one  picturing  France  strong  and 
grand  hefore  the  world,  though  deprived  by  fortuitous 
circumstances  of  her  clergy  and  nobles,'^^  another  even 
openly  discussing  a  French  republic,^^  it  is  evident  that 
the  pamphlet  was  not  far  behind  the  journal  in  express- 
ing a  claim  for  new  theories,  all  tending  in  one  direc- 
tion. 

The  "  almanachs  '^  of  this  time  are  so  numerous  and 
so  characteristic    that  they  merit  a  word  in  passing. 

57  Condorcet,  Volney,  Target,  Bergasse,  Mounier,  Servan, 
Rabaud  de  St.  Etienne,  are  the  most  important  writers  of 
pamphlets. 

58 Rabaud  de  St.  Etienne;  note  the  resemblance  of  this 
idea  to  that  of  St.  Simon  in  his  "  Parabola." 

59  Camille  Desmoulins,  in  his  "  France  Libre  " 


IQg        PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

These  curious  and  distinctively  French  publications 
played  the  not  altogether  admirable  part  of  the  low 
comedian,  whose  jokes  reach  the  gallery  where  the  in- 
tellectual didactics  of  the  leading  personages  fail  of  ef- 
fect. Their  share  in  the  work  must  not  be  neglected. 
Particularly  in  France,  where  to  ridicule  is  to  kill 
socially,  the  low  comedian  has  no  despicable  role,  and 
it  is  probable  that  the  almanac  played  a  significant 
part  in  the  work  of  reshaping  public  opinion.  The 
cheap  prose  and  cheaper  poetry  of  the  "  Almanach 
des  Republicains,"  of  the  "  Calendrier  des  Bons  Citoy- 
ens"  of  Collot  d'Herbois;  the  popular  "Almanach  du 
Pere  Gerard,"  or  the  other  more  royalist  publications 
of  a  similar  nature,^  are  dull  enough  reading  now; 
but  their  absurd,  even  offensive  commonplace  had  much 
vogue  at  the  time  it  was  edited.  The  whole  tenor 
of  these  publications  was  to  belittle  the  past,  to  cry 
aloud  the  gifts  which  the  present  had  ready  for  the  fu- 
ture —  above  all  to  exalt  a  future  that  was  to  be  shaped 
by  the  inspired  theories  with  which  the  Revolution  was 
blessing  men.  Though  empty  of  meaning,  unless  read 
in  the  light  of  the  events  which  produced  them,  the 
almanacs  take  their  place  along  with  newspaper  and 
pamphlet  as  a  medium  to  catch  and  hold  the  possibly 
unsettled  mind  of  the  reading  public.^^ 

To  these  more  institutional  phases  of  Paris  life  add 

60  L'Alraanach  de  TAbb^  Maury,  Les  Almanachs  des  Emigres, 
L' Almanach  historique  et  critique  des  deputes,"  are  especially 
noteworthy.  Comp.  Welschinger,  Les  Almanachs  de  la  Revo- 
lution.    Paris,  1884. 

61  For  a  good  study  of  the  content  and  influence  of  the  al- 
manac, the  "reader  is  referred  to  Welschinger's  readable  littles 
book. 


FINAL  FOCUSING.  109 

now  the  gradual  changes  which  the  Kevolution  slowly 
brought  about.  When  the  new  ideas  of  equality  and 
liberty  strive  to  become  applied  doctrine,  Paris  still 
leads  in  stimulating  to  active  discontent  or  in  making 
for  solidarity  of  opinion.  When  the  militia  organized 
and  all  classes  thus  came  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  an 
entirely  new  service  of  citizenship;  when  titles  were 
banished,  and  armorial  bearings  were  removed  from 
houses  where  they  had  been  for  centuries;  when  simple 
and  similar  dress  went  along  with  newly- awakened  sen- 
sibilities concerning  a  neighbor's  rights,  each  change 
came  to  act  as  another  plea  for  a  widespread  and  en- 
tire acceptance  of  principles  completely  revolutionary. 
When,  on  the  other  hand,  Paris  streets  surged  daily 
with  thousands  of  beggars  and  unemployed,^^  come  foot- 
sore and  in  haste  to  the  fount  of  freedom  in  order  to 
get  a  share  in  the  new  liberty,  that  element  of  blind 
force  arrived  which*completed  the  probability  of  swift 
and  entire  alteration  in  the  social  institutions.  By 
1793,  Paris  inclosed  within  her  walls  all  that  was  nec- 
essary to  give  power  to  the  radical  reformer. 

IV. 

We  have  almost  reached  the  period  in  French  his- 
tory when  the  radical  rationalism  which  is  the  sub- 
ject of  this  study  took  precedence,  if  only  for  a  brief 
time,  of  all  other  theory,  both  in  the  mouths  of  men  and 
in  social  institutions.  One  more  group  of  social  facts 
needs  to  be  noted  as  a  determining  influence,  not  so 
much  now,  an  influence  for  the  expression  of  revolu- 

62  There  were  119,000  in  1791.    Von  Hoist,  op.  cit.,  1,  p.  47. 


110       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

tionary  principles  as  one  which  decided  the  final  color 
to  be  given  those  principles.  In  addition  to  the  new 
culture,  the  national  disintegration  and  the  class  awak- 
ening which  were  essential  preliminaries  of  a  time  when 
new  doctrines  actually  displaced  the  old;  in  addition  to 
the  elements  of  Paris  life,  which  aided  to  concentrate 
and  strengthen  the  doctrine,  the  events  which  decided 
their  entirely  radical  character  need  to  be  noted.  The 
dramatic  period  which  includes  the  meeting  of  the  first 
two  legislative  bodies  of  France  and  a  small  part  of 
the  history  of  the  third,  also  includes  the  final  change, 
which  for  a  short,  yet  notable  period,  made  the  demo- 
cratic sentiments  of  a  few  doctrinaires  and  their  allies 
the  announced  principles  of  the  French  nation.  During 
this  period  passionate  debates  finally  wrought  a  change 
in  the  whole  political  system  of  the  nation.  At  the 
end  of  the  period,  uncompromising  advocates  of  a  log- 
ical and  complete  alteration  in  the  social  theory  of  the 
time  had,  with  the  aid  of  the  Paris  mob,  won  their 
fight,  and  for  a  short  while  the  Principles  of  Eevolu- 
tion  were  promulgated  as  the  law  of  France. 

This  closing  period  may  be  divided  into  three  stages. 
The  first  is  that  during  which  the  Constituent  Assem- 
bly begins  a  definite  statement  of  the  principles  of  revo- 
lution, and  then,  with  a  lingering  respect  for  the  old 
doctrine,  compromises  on  the  reforms  expressed  in  the 
Constitution  of  '91.  The  next  is  that  period  when 
revolutionary  principles  were  vigorously  demanded,  but 
social  anarchy  and  a  struggle  of  factions  chilled  those 
who  held  political  control  so  that  they  hesitated  to 
further    the    final    enumeration    of    these    principles. 


CONSTITUENT  A88£!MBL7.  Ill 

Finally  there  came  the  time  when  a  group  of  opportun- 
ists got  control,  and,  promulgating  the  Constitution 
of  '93,  completed  the  record  of  the  immediate  causes 
of  the  revolutionary  principles. 

The  Constituent  Assembly  represents  a  struggle  be- 
tween abstract  philosophy  and  the  doctrines  of  ap- 
plied politics;  it  is  the  place  where  the  practical  men 
make  their  last  effective  protest  against  the  despotism 
of  logic.  But  the  rationalistic  type  of  mind  had  first 
place  even  in  this  earliest  legislative  body.  For  the 
most  part,  the  Constituent  Assembly  was  made  up  of 
young,  convent-bred  men,  who  had  little  or  no  knowl- 
edge of  practical  politics^'^ — men  who,  under  Paris  in- 
fluences, were  daily  growing  more  liberty-mad.  Re- 
calling this  fact,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  deputies  of 
'89  forgot  the  many  important  administrative  duties 
which  they  had  come  to  perform,  and  spent  months  in 
a  wrangle  over  logical  principles  which,  in  the  eyes  of 
these  enthusiasts,  seemed  the  right  and  necessary  basis 
of  the  new  government  they  were  to  inaugurate. 
Called  to  make  constitutional  and  administrative  law, 
to  alter  and  codify  civil  law,  to  devise  means  of  sup- 
port for  a  bankrupt  government  and  eventually  to  plan 
for  an  ecclesiastic  and  educational  system  —  in  a  word, 
to  serve  at  oiice  as  legislators  and  legislature,  to  make 
law  and  to  administer  the  law,  they  did  neither  until 
they  had  first  drawn  up  the  Rights  of  Man!  A  spirit 
of  reform  rather  than  of  revolution  may  have  later 

63  For  one  of  the  best  resumes  of  the  character  of  the  As- 
sembly, see  Taine,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  11,  chap.  1,  pp.  154-178.  Ar- 
thur Young  and  Dumont  (M^moires  de  Mirabeau)  also  bear 
the  same  testimony  on  this  point. 


112        PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

regained  control  of  the  Assembly,^  because  Mirabeau's 
strong  statesmanship  fairly  dominated  that  body  even 
against  its  will ;  —  none  the  less  this  same  Assembly 
sent  forth  the  Eights  of  Man  to  France  and  these 
Eights  of  Man  were  the  fundamental  doctrine  in  the 
revolutionary  principles.  The  stress  which  the  As- 
sembly laid  upon  this  series  of  abstractions  spread  and 
deepened  the  revolution  in  men's  minds. 

The  remaining  work  of  the  Assembly  was  the  Con- 
stitution of  '91.  This  body  of  rules  for  the  govern- 
ment of  France  is  a  futile  effort  to  reconcile  the  prin- 
ciples of  monarchy  and  democracy.  It  created  as  ex- 
ecutive, a  king,  whose  legislative  power  consisted  in  a 
suspensive  veto  which  gave  the  monarch  a  very  con- 
siderable power  to  block  legislation,  and  so  seemed  to 
make  constant  friction  with  the  legislative  almost  cer- 
tain. As  to  the  legislative,  its  democratic  and  radical 
character  seemed  assured.  It  is  true  that  its  members 
were  required  to  have  somewhat  high  property  quali- 
fications and  were  chosen  by  indirect  election,  but  the 
legislative  body  was  to  be  unicameral,  and  was  to  change 
every  two  years.  In  consideration  of  the  average  of 
human  nature,  a  plan  for  a  legislature  of  one  cham- 
ber, which  changed  its  personnel  so  often,  was  one 
which  seemed  to  make  factional  and  ineffective  govern- 
ment inevitable.  Most  important  of  all,  this  instru- 
ment of  government  disputed  the  very  terms  of  the 
Declaration  of  Eights  which  had  proudly  been  placed 
at  its  head ;  for,  on  a  basis  of  money  distinctions,  it  sepa- 
rated the  nation  into  active  and  passive  citizens.  Tlie 
Constitution  of  ^91  is,  then,  the  recorded  evidence  of  the 

64  See  e.  g.,  art.  16,  where  the  principle  of  the  separation 
of  powers  is  laid  down. 


MINORITIES   CONTROL.  113 

momentary  compromise  between  the  incompatible  ele- 
ments contending  in  the  Assembly.  It  is  the  close  of 
the  reform  movement  as  against  the  revolutionary  move- 
ment; or,  to  look  at  it  from  another  point  of  view, 
it  is  the  last  dyke  which  the  less  radical  element  of 
the  nation  managed  to  erect  for  a  brief  time  in  face 
of  the  rising  flood  of  revolutionary  opinion. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  in  the  political  affairs  of  human- 
ity—  a  fact  that  of  course  holds  good  for  other  than 
French  history  —  that  it  is  an  energetic  minority  which 
usually  holds  and  carries  with  it  the  more  or  less  unwill- 
ing majority.  Nowhere  in  history  is  this  better  evi- 
denced than  in  the  successive  assemblies  of  the  French 
Kevolution.  If  conservatism  partly  controlled  the  con- 
stituent, it  was  because  Mirabeau's  voice,  raised  in 
warning  against  the  despotism  of  mobs,  checked  the 
majority  in  their  growing  passion  of  eagerness  to  realize 
political  equality  at  once.  If  the  Legislative  Assembly 
moved  steadily  to  the  extreme  democracy  which  the 
Convention  ultimately  sanctioned,  it  was  because  within 
these  legislative  bodies  a  small  group  of  energetic  Par- 
isians drove  opinion  in  that  direction.  True,  outside 
the  halls  of  state,  this  minority  itself  was  driven;  but 
so  far  as  the  legislative  assemblies  are  in  question,  it 
seems  certain  that  throughout  the  Revolution,  the  ma- 
jority at  Center,  swayed  to  Eight  or  Left,  alternately 
the  captive  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  contending  minor- 
ities. 

The  formidable  ally  of  this  minority,  the  power  be- 
hind the  throne  which  may  be  said  to  have  finally  ruled 
France  and  given  it  the  principles  of  revolution,  was 

8 


114 


PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 


of  course  the  Parisian  populace.    The  people  of  the  great 
metropolis  were,  at  the  last,  the  means  to  enforce  the 
proclamation  of  those  fundamental  laws  that  gave  legal 
sanction  to  the  Declaration  of  Eights,  and  so  completed 
the  Declaration  of  the  Revolutionary  principles.    Acting 
through   the   Commune   and   the   sections,   the  Paris 
masses  were  the  real  minority  which  as  early  as  1789 
began  to  shape  French  political  thinking.     Even  in 
the    Constituent    Assembly,    monarchical    ideas    grew 
weak    and    retired    in    face    of     the     fierce     invect- 
ive and  angry  demands  of  the  hungry,  excited  spec- 
tators,   who    daily    crowded    the    tribunes;     even    at 
that  time,  selfish  or  patriotic  reasons  impelled  men  to 
think  and  talk  after  the  way  of  those  "  sans-culottes,'' 
who  acted  as  chorus  to  all  the  proceedings  of  the  As- 
sembly.    Later,  the  rumble  of  opinion  which  the  clubs, 
cafes  and  newspapers  sent  from  outside  had  no   in- 
conspicuous share  in  molding  parliamentary  opinion. 
When  club  members,  frequenters  of  cafes,  and  the  mot- 
ley united  to  make  more  or  less  forcible  entrance  into 
the  hall  where  the  Assembly  met,  bringing  almost  daily, 
by  delegations  or  impromptu  personal  speeches,  insis- 
tent protests  against  half  measures,  the  bulk  of  the 
legislative  opinion  was  frequently  caught  by  sheer  force 
of  suggestion.      The  Parisians  soon  learned  to  reject 
any  laws  which  did  not  entirely  recognize  the  prin- 
ciples laid  down  in  the  Declaration  of  Rights;  they 
likewise  learned  their  power  as  against  that  of  the  As- 
sembly.     The  continual  disorder    in    Paris    and    the 
highly  nervous  temperament  of  the  Parisian  together 
constituted  the  last  straw  which  precipitated  the  nation 
into  absolute  democracy. 


FINAL  STRUGGLE.  115 

In  times  of  social  disorganization,  political  power 
usually  falls  to  that  group  of  persons  within  the  na- 
tion which  is  sufficiently  in  accord  as  to  purpose,  suffi- 
ciently strong  in  organization,  and  sufficiently  pliant 
in  regard  to  methods  of  domination.  Such  a  group 
rarely  fails  to  appear  in  human  societies;  it  did  not 
fail  to  appear  at  the  period  of  French  history  here 
under  discussion.  The  dramatic  seizure  of  govern- 
ment by  the  Jacobins  is  one  of  the  narratives  which 
history  dwells  oftenest  upon. 

It  will  not  do  to  ascribe  the  Jacobin  control  to  the 
weakness  of  the  Constitution  of  ^91 ;  nor  is  it  solely  at- 
tributable to  the  royalist  invasion  which  gave  the  Ja- 
cobins the  chord  of  patriotism  to  play  upon.  Each  of 
these  facts  aided  the  Jacobins,  but  their  rise  to 
power  and  the  consequent  adoption  of  the  principles 
they  advocated  was  due  first  of  all  to  this:  in  a  time 
of  extreme  anarchy,  a  few  able  men  to  whom  youth 
gave  the  courage  to  dare,  caught  the  temper  of  the 
Paris  mob,  won  its  support  and  held  it.  The  successive 
stages  of  their  struggle  to  victory  —  a  struggle  wherein 
king,  conservative  and  liberal  went  down  making  a 
hard  fight  against  opinion  whose  bulwark  was  the 
Eights  of  Man  —  need  only  be  recalled.  Mirabeau-Ton- 
neau  and  D'Espremenil  were  forced  to  retire  before 
the  moderates,  who  asked  for  enlightened  monarchy; 
^he  Malouets  and  Lallys  went  to  the  wall  when  Sieyes, 
St.  Etienne,  Talleyrand  or  La  Eochefoucauld  put  for- 
ward the  elective  principle;  these,  in  their  turn,  came 
to  seem  conservative  as  Mirabeau,  ready  for  almost  any 
lengths,  in  order  to  control  and  bring  stability  to  the 
government,  played  upon  the  sympathies  of  the  people 


IIQ       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

with  his  oratory,^  and  for  a  time  became  their  idol. 
These  changes  of  faction  are  the  successive  phases  of 
the  struggle  between  the  majority  of  the  parliamentary 
body  and  the  Mountain,  the  minority  who  represented 
the  commune;  they  need  not  be  dwelt  upon.  For  our 
purpose,  the  interest  centers  about  the  moment  when 
two  powers  finally  stood  face  to  face.  When  men  pres- 
ent in  the  legislative  body  from  the  first,  had  joined 
their  interests  with  those  of  the  commonalty  which 
Btood  roaring  outside,  the  last  stage  was  reached  pre- 
liminary to  formulating  the  principles  of  revolution. 

If  the  Jacobins,  with  the  aid  of  the  Paris  clubs  and 
the  Paris  sections,  came  to  rule  France,  it  was  because 
the  first  gift  of  the  Eevolution  to  the  provinces  was  an 
anarchy  that  left  them  the  easy  prey  to  a  central  despot- 
ism, and  because,  in  Paris,  the  Girondins,  the  party 
who  represented  the  whole  parliamentary  opposition 
to  the  Jacobins,  could  give,  in  these  days  of  '93  which 
asked  for  so  much  more,  nothing  but  a  theoretical  ac- 
quiescence in  the  revolutionary  principles. 

Between  1789  and  '91,  the  national  life  had  been 
shaken  to  its  foundations.  Custom  and  tradition  had 
been  arraigned  and  men  had  been  told  that  they  had 
a  right  to  question  both;  custom  and  tradition  had 
been  declared  at  fault  in  the  light  of  the  Eights  of 
Man;  and  this  idea  had,  above  all  others,  been  per- 
sistently popularized.  Anarchy  was  practically  the 
first  result  of  the  proclamation  of  these  rights.  The 
nation  was  left  without  a  guide,  for  the  new  rulers,  in 

65  Compare  Von  Hoist,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  passim. 


A^t^ARCHY  IN  FRANCE.  117 

their  inexperience,  could  not  both  make  constitutions 
and  supervise  local  administration.  Each  provincial 
governor  followed  his  own  notion  of  government;  in 
many  cases  he  had  no  clear  idea  on  the  subject,  and 
thus,  presently,  the  communes  legislated  each  one  for 
itself.  Demagogues,  preaching  the  new  creed,  spread 
over  the  coufitry,  bringing  with  them  the  news  of  the 
doings  in  Paris,  telling  how  the  people  had  captured 
the  Bastille  and  taken  their  king  to  Paris;  how  the 
People  were  now  to  rule  France  and  have  their  rights. 
Scarcity  of  work  and  scarcity  of  food  are  first-rate  as- 
sistants for  the  political  orator  who  wishes  to  decry 
£in  old  civilization  and  proclaim  a  new  order,  and 
neither  aid  failed  at  this  time.  When  wayfarers  and 
paupers,  homeless  and  half-starved,  heard  of  the 
Eights  of  Man,  these  rights  became  at  once  the  rights 
of  the  needy  and  hungry;  having  nothing  to  lose,  none 
were  more  ready  than  they  to  rally  to  the  new  order. 
Not  only  the  oppressed,  but  the  outcast  and  destitute 
fall  in  with  the  rebellion  against  any  but  democratic 
law.  Soon  all  over  the  country  it  had  become  com- 
mon to  refuse  to  pay  any  taxes  at  all;  a  new  levy  had 
not  been  made,  and  to  pay  the  old  feudal  burdens  had 
been  declared  at  variance  with  the  Rights  of  Man. 
The  military  caught  the  new  enthusiasm,  and,  in  most 
of  the  provinces,  recruits  and  old  soldiers  alike  be- 
came unreliable  in  view  of  their  new-found  right 
to  individual  judgment.  The  noble  who  had  not  al- 
ready gone  to  raise  a  foreign  army  against  his  country 
was  at  best  alienated  from  any  share  in  the  national 
life,  for  he  had  been  abruptly  and  opprobriously  shorn 


llg        PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

of  everything  which  he  had  most  prized,  and  was,  be- 
sides, in  many  of  the  provinces,  the  object  of  a  more 
and  more  vindictive  hatred.  Worst  of  all,  the  clergy 
in  many  parts  of  the  country  were  greatly  disaffected. 
No  part  of  this  story  of  the  spread  of  anarchy  is  so 
pitiable  and  terrible  as  the  story  of  the  struggle  be- 
tween the  constitutional  and  the  non-juror  priests;  no- 
where more  than  in  the  districts  in  which  this  form  of 
dissension  prevailed  was  the  quarrel  so  bitter  or  the 
factional  division  so  fatal  to  life  and  property.  With 
the  appropriation  of  the  church  lands  and  the  civil 
constitution  of  the  clergy,  the  baneful  element  of  re- 
ligious difference,  than  which  there  is  nothing  more 
terrible  between  man  and  man,  added  a  note  of  bitter- 
ness to  the  noisy  anarchy  of  the  nation. 

And  that  anarchy,  as  has  been  said,  was  the  oppor- 
tunity of  the  Paris  commune  and  its  leaders.  It  was 
because  the  country  was  all  divided  between  the  dis- 
heartened, the  disaffected,  and  the  lawless,  that  the 
Jacobin  society  was  able  to  spread  its  network  over 
France  and  make,  for  a  time,  the  despotism  of  a  Paris 
faction,  a  national  despotism.  When  the  nation  is  in 
the  throes  of  a  complete  upheaval;  when  the  cry  for 
food  comes  from  thousands  of  starving  men  and 
women,  and  the  call  for  democracy  is  raised  by  more 
than  a  hundred  newspapers  urging  their  demands  as 
a  demand  of  the  nation;  when  745  men,  for  the  most 
part  keyed  up  to  believe  in  an  imminent  millennium 
incident  to  the  legalization  of  new-found  principles, 
are  called,  most  of  them  from  advocates'  desks,  to  di- 
rect a  heaving,  uncertain  national  life,  a  strong  and 
able  faction  finds  its  opportunity.     Strengthened  be- 


THE  GIRONDINS.  II9 

cause  France  was  uneasy  and  discordant,  and  Paris  yet 
more  restless,  hungry  and  dissentient,  the  Jacobins, 
and  chief  among  them,  the  deputies  of  the  communes 
of  the  Paris  clubs,  faced  and  vanquished  the  Girondins, 
their  last  surviving  competitors  in  the  race  to  give 
France  a  pure^democracy. 

The  history  of  the  Gironde^^  will  always  move  the 
imagination.  The  sharp  contrast  between  the  begin- 
ning and  the  end  of  the  party's  existence  is  an  episode 
whose  dramatic  pathos  can  never  be  overlooked.  A 
group  of  young,  enthusiastic,  talented  men  controlled 
the  majority  in  the  Assembly  for  almost  a  year,  pre- 
dominated in  the  ministry,  counted  one  of  their  num- 
ber mayor  of  Paris,  and  the  press  and  public,  their 
enthusiastic  allies.  Then,  with  a  swift  turn  in  the  tide 
of  opinion,  this  Gironde  fell  from  a  favor  which  they 
made  no  unworthy  fight  to  retain,  and  finally  be- 
came fugitives  from  mob-law  or  went  to  the  guillotine 
singing  the  Marseillaise.  In  no  part  of  the  parliamentary 
records  are  there  to  be  found  orations  more  perfect  in 
form  and  more  able  in  thought  than  those  of  Vergniaud 
and  Guadet;  no  fire  and  passion  stir  one  in  the  read- 
ing as  does  that  which  vibrates  in  the  speeches  of  Is- 
nard;  no  subtility  of  argument,  and  sage,  clear  reason- 
ing in  the  whole  revolutionary  period  quite  equals  that 
of  Gensonne  or  Condorcet;  no  picture  of  stolid,  pains- 
taking patriotism  can  surpass  the  one  for  which  Eoland 

66  On  the  Girondins,  beside  Lamartine,  who  is  too  par- 
tisan to  be  of  real  value,  see  Vatel,  Charlotte  Corday  et  les 
Girondins;  J.  Guadet,  Les  Girondins;  and  the  admirable  chap- 
ter on  the  fall  of  the  Girondins  in  Morse-Stephens,  op.  cit. 
See,  also,  the  ^Memoirs  of  Madame  Roland,  Dumouriez,  Bar- 
baroux  and  Louvet. 


120        PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

stands  as  the  original.  It  thus  happens  that,  in  the 
esthetic  emotion  which  these  facts  arouse,  the  con- 
spicuous weakness  of  the  Gironde  as  a  political  party- 
is  often  forgotten.  It  is  one  thing  to  put  forward,  in 
a  hrilliant  style,  a  doctrine  of  progress,  the  principle 
of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  the  dream  of  a  classic 
republic;  it  is  another  to  be  willing  to  put  those 
doctrines  into  law  and  to  be  able  to  make  such  law 
effective.  The  philosopher  may  be  permitted  to  out- 
line principles  without  pointing  the  method  for  apply- 
ing them;  such  a  course  is  fatal  to  a  politician.  In 
spite  of  their  undoubted  abilities,  the  speculative 
quality  of  mind  which  distinguished  most  of  the 
Girondists  made  them,  as  a  party,  badly  disciplined 
and  without  any  precise  program.  The  consequent  un- 
certainty of  their  action  made  their  failure  inevitable. 
Failure  is  not  a  crime,  and  the  Gironde  would  not,  of 
necessity,  be  discredited  because  they  went  down  be- 
fore the  Jacobins;  but,  stripped  of  its  perfect  literary 
form,  little  that  they  advocated  can  be  regarded  as 
sound  doctrine.  However,  it  was  not  because  of  the 
unsoundness  of  their  theories  that  the  Jacobins  turned 
against  them.  The  Jacobins  had  little  fault  to  find  with 
the  principles  advocated  by  their  rivals;  what  they  at- 
tacked was  their  lukewarm  support  of  them.  The 
want  of  unity  among  the  Girondins  was  the  opportunity 
of  the  Jacobins. 

Unlike  the  Girondists,  the  Montagnards  were  first 
of  all  tacticians;  they  were  strongly  organized  and 
ready,  each  and  all,  to  use  any  means  which  came  to 
hand.     The  Jacobin  party  spoke  the  language  of  the 


THE  JACOBINS.  121 

people;  they  played  with  the  ideals  of  equality  of  pos- 
session and  of  position;  they  winked  at  violence,  even 
when  they  did  not  join  in  it.  There  was  more  of 
scholarship  among  them  than  their  enemies  will  allow; 
more  real  patriotism  than  m.adness  or  sedition  in  their 
aims.  They  were  thoroughly  in  earnest  and  not  too 
scrupulous  as  to  the  means  they  were  willing  to  em- 
ploy in  order  to  secure  that  public  weal  for  which,  it 
seems  fair  to  think,  most  of  them  were  sincerely  striv- 
ing. When  the  Girondins  opposed  the  September  mas- 
sacres, because  of  their  illegal  aspects,  the  Jacobins 
urged  that  if  these  were  illegal,  then  the  fall  of  the 
Bastille,  many  of  the  acts  of  the  States-General,  the 
overthrow  of  royalty, —  in  fact,  the  whole  revolution, 
was  also  illegal.^'''  While  the  Girondins  saw  in  the 
Revolutionary  Tribunal  and  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety,  deplorable  tendencies  to  high-handed  and  des- 
potic acts  of  government,  and  in  any  laws  which 
seemed  coercive  in  relation  to  trade  or  money,  so  many 
unjustifiable  interferences  with  individual  liberty,  the 
Jacobins  unswervingly  proposed  and  carried  out  these 
measures  as  the  only  immediate  means  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  majority.  The  general  method  of  the 
Eevolution  was  attack  upon  established  institutions, 
upon  the  emigres,^^  upon  the  priests,^^  upon  the  king. 
Up  to  this  point  in  the  offensive  war  upon  old  institu- 
tions, the  Gironde  was  ready  to  follow  or  even  to  lead 
the  Jacobins;  but  after  the  tenth  of  August,  the 
Gironde  called  a  halt.    The  Jacobins,  on  the  contrary,, 

67  See  Thiers.     Histoire  de  la  R§volutioii,  III,  p.  99. 

68  Decree  of  November  9,  1791. 

69  Decree  of  September,  1792. 


122       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

went  the  whole  length.  It  was  these  Jacohins  who 
prepared  for  pitiless  war  on  all  who  were  not  ready  to 
accept  the  equality  of  condition  as  well  as  the  new  re- 
ligion and  the  form  of  government  which  the  class 
newly  come  to  power  proposed  to  establish.  It  was 
the  Jacobins  who,  goaded  by  the  foreign  war,  and 
starting  from  the  principle  of  "making  royalists 
afraid/'  went  almost  unintentionally,  by  way  of  the 
prison-massacres,  into  the  Eeign  of  Terror.  And  what 
is  most  to  the  present  purpose,  it  was  the  Jacobins 
who,  with  the  aid  of  the  revolutionary  committees  of 
Paris,  and  backed  by  the  martial  power  of  the  Com- 
mune, secured  the  overthrow  of  the  Girondins,  and 
then,  in  the  space  of  eight  days,  drew  up  the  Constitu- 
tion of  '93. 

The  Jacobin  constitution  of  '93,  which  had  waited 
almost  a  year  to  be  put  together,  and  was  then  hastily 
formulated  in  a  burst  of  democratic  enthusiasm,  marks 
the  complete  development  of  the  revolutionary  doc- 
trine. This  "most  popular  constitution  ever  given  to 
men,""^^  is,  in  a  sense,  the  epitome  of  the  principles 
of  the  Eevolution.  The  Constitution  of  '93  has  been 
the  objective  point  in  this  search  after  the  facts 
connected  with  the  immediate  cause  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  principles  of  revolution,  because  in  that 
instrument  men  aimed  to  give  legal  sanction  to  the 
new  theories  of  liberty,  equality  and  fraternity.  After 
the    date   of   its   publication,   the    public    policy   was 

70  Herault  de  Sechelles.  Stance  of  June  10,  1793.  Moniteur, 
XVI,  p.  616.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Constitution 
of  '93  was  only  put  before  men's  imagination;  it  was  never 
used  as  the  basis  of  government. 


SUMMARY,    f  123 

marked  by  methods  increasingly  at  variance  with  the 
revolutionary  doctrines.  With  the  fall  of  the  Gironde 
and  the  development  of  the  policy  of  terror,  the  princi- 
ples which  instigated  revolution  lose  their  meaning  and 
are  constantly  disputed  by  practice.  Tyranny  in  order 
to  liberty  is  not  a  principle  of  revolution  but  a  practice ; 
when  that  practice  was  inaugurated,  the  revolutionary 
principles  had  been  finally  expressed  and  the  reaction 
had  set  in. 

The  social  growth  which  characterized  France  dur- 
ing the  century  preceding  the  Eevolution  has  now  been 
reviewed,  in  an  attempt  to  show  an  unfolding-process 
that  developed  a  new  social  theory.  The  facts  in  sum- 
mary are  these:  Two  important  influences  of  the 
eighteenth  century  collaborated  in  the  growth  of  a  new 
type  of  social  thought :  On  the  one  hand,  a  new  philos- 
ophy gradually  penetrated  the  current  opinion;  on  the 
other  hand,  an  unqualified  need  of  a  material  reorder- 
ing of  the  national  life  came  to  give  a  final  character 
and  emphasis  to  the  intellectual  change.  A  group  of 
thinkers  raised  a  literary  revolt  against  much  that  was 
held  to  be  unalterable  usage;  their  ideas  became  the 
first  mediums  to  disseminate  a  new  sentiment.  The 
complete  break-up  of  the  machinery  of  government  and 
the  incapacity  of  the  single  hand  to  which,  at  the  end 
of  the  century,  the  guidance  of  the  political  machine 
was  left,  cleared  the  way  by  which  the  disciples  of  this 
new  critical  philosophy  were  able  to  give  popularity  to 
their  creed.  The  vital  fact  at  the  end  of  the  century 
was  the  important  role  played  by  one  class  of  the  na- 
tion, a  class  whose  development  seems  always  to  have 
influenced  the  growth  of  the  whole  nation.     At  the 


124       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  whole  energies  of 
the  Third  Estate  seemed  to  center  finally  on  an  irre- 
pressible struggle  for  political  independence.  Certain 
peculiarities  of  life  and  manners  in  the  metropolis  of 
the  nation  determined  and  precipitated  the  action  of 
this  class,  and  of  that  still  disfranchised  class  whose 
aid  it  managed  to  secure.  Finally,  certain  factions 
within  this  class  met  in  a  struggle,  a  struggle  which 
ended  in  the  domination  of  that  section  of  the  Third 
Estate  which  held  the  most  extreme  views.  Thus  gen- 
eral and  particular  influences  developed  and  modified 
social  thinking,  until  it  effectually  settled  upon  the 
principles  of  the  Eevolution. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  FOR  CHAPTER  II. 

Alger.  Glimpses  of  the  Revolution,  ed.  Sampson,  Low, 
Marston  &  Co.,  London,  1894. —  Baheau.  La  vie  rurale  dans 
I'ancienne  France,  ed.  Emile  Perrin,  Paris,  1885:  Le  Village 
sous  I'ancien  Regime,  Didier  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1882;  La  ville  sous 
I'ancien  regime,  Didier  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1884;  Paris  en  1789;  ed. 
Firmin,  Didier  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1891. —  Bailly.  Memoirs,  ed. 
Baudouin  fr^res,  Paris,  1827. —  Barharoux.  Memoires,  ed. 
Baudouin  fr^res,  Paris,  1827. —  Blanc.  Histoire  de  la  RC'Volu- 
tion  frangaise,  ed.  Furne  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1869. —  Belloc.  Dan- 
ton,  ed.  Scribner's  Sons,  1899. —  Beaumarcliais.  Memoiros,  ed. 
Laplace,  Paris,  1876. —  Bire.  Journal  d'un  bourgeois  de  Paris 
pendant  la  Terreur.  Perrin,  Paris,  1898. —  Boiteau.  Etat  de 
la  France  en  1789,  ed.  Guillaumin  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1889. —  Biichez 
et  Roux.  Histoire  Parlementaire  de  la  Revolution  franraise, 
ed.  Picard  et  flls,  1834-38. —  Burke.  Reflections  on  the  French 
Revolution. —  Brunetiere.  Le  Paysan  sous  I'ancien  regime,  in 
Histoire  et  litterature,  Paris,  1893. —  Campan.  Memoires,  ed. 
Baudouin  fr^res,  Paris,  1826. —  Carlyle.  French  Revolution, 
ed.  Chas.  Scribner's  Sons. —  Cher  est.  La  Chute  de  I'Ancien 
Regime,  ed.  Hachette,  Paris,  1884. —  Clery.  Journal  de  ce  qui 
s'est  pass6  a  la  Tour  du  Temple,  ed.  Michaud,  Paris,  1823. — 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  FOR  CHAPTER  II.  125 

Christie.    Letters  on  the  French  Revolution,  ed.  London,  179L 

—  Cheruel.  Dictionnaire  des  Institutions  de  la  France,  ed. 
Hachette,  Paris,  1880. —  De  Goncourt.  (Edmond  et  Jules)  La 
Society  frangaise  pendant  la  Revolution,  ed.  Dentu,  Paris,  1854. 

—  De  Tocqueville.  L'Ancien  Regime  et  la  Revolution.  Michel 
L6vy,  Paris,  1857. —  Dumont.  Recollections  of  Mirabeau,  ed. 
London,  Edwin  Bull,  1832. —  Dumouriez.  M^moires,  Baudouin 
fr^res,  Paris,  1823. —  Desmoulins.  Vieux  Cordelier,  reprint  by 
Baudouin  fr^res,  Paris,  1825. —  Desnoir  ester  res.  Voltaire  et 
la  Society  au  XVIIIe  si&cle,  Didier  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1871-76. — 
Droz.  Histoire  du  Regne  de  Louis  XVI.  Renouard,  Paris, 
1860. —  Ferridres.    M6moires,  ed.  Baudouin  frdres,  Paris,  1822. 

—  Oaudet.  Les  Girondins,  ed.  Perrin  &  Cie.,  Paris,  1889. — 
Hamel.  Vie  de  Robespierre,  ed.  Lacroix  Verboeckhoven  &  Cie., 
Paris,  1895. —  HSlie.  Les  Constitutions  de  la  France,  ed.  Mar- 
escaine,  Paris,  1875. —  Houssaye.  La  Revolution,  ed.  Bib. 
Charpentier,  Paris,  1891. —  Johez.  La  France  sous  Louis  XVI, 
Didier  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1877. —  Lamartine.  Histoire  des  Giron- 
dins, in  OiJuvres,  ed.  de  I'auteur,  Paris,  1861. —  Laurent.  La 
Revolution  Frangaise,  in  Etudes  sur  I'histoire  de  THumanite, 
ed.  Meiine,  Cans  &  Cie.,  Bruxelles,  1861. —  Lavergne.  Les  As- 
semblees  Provincales  sous  Louis  XVI,  ed.  Caiman  L^vy,  Paris, 
1879. —  Lecky.  England  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Vols.  V-VI, 
ed.  Appleton,  N.  Y.,  1882. —  Lewes.  Life  of  Robespierre,  Lon- 
don, Chapman  &  Hall,  1849. —  Lomenie.  Beaumarchais,  et  son 
temps,  Eng.  ed..  Harper,  1857. —  Louvet.  M^moires,  ed.  Bau- 
douin fr6res,  Paris,  1823. —  Lowell.  The  Eve  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, ed.  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1893. —  Martin.  Histoire  de 
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—  Mignet.  La  Revolution  frangaise,  Eng.  edition. —  Morse- 
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et  son  fils  adoptif,  precedes  d'une  etude  de  Mirabeau  par  Vic- 
tor Hugo,  ed.  Meline,  Bruxelles,  1834. —  Olivier.  La  France 
avant  la  Revolution,  Guillaumin  &  Cie.,  Paris,  1889. —  Perkins. 
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1896;  France  under  Louis  XV,  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Bos- 
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&  Cie.,  Paris,  1865. —  Rocquain.  L'Esprit  revolutionnaire  avant 
la  Revolution,  Plon  &  Cie.,  Paris,  1878. —  Roland.  (Madame) 
Memoires,  ed.  Baudouin  frSres,  Paris,  1821. —  Saint  Simon. 
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—  Taine.  Les  Origines  de  la  France  Contemporaine,  ed.  Hach- 
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126       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

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George  Bell  &  Sons,  London,  1890. 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 


CHAPTEE  III. 
THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 
I.  The  Inclusive  Chabacteb  of  the  Revolxjtionaey  Pein- 

CIPLES. 

II.  Fundamental  Conceptions. 

III.  The  Rights  of  Man. 

IV.  The  State  and  the  Individual. 


With  regard  to  the  theories  whose  immediate  causes 
have  now  been  considered,  it  is  plain,  first  of  all,  that 
they  are  principles  put  forward  in  a  spirit  of  vital  and 
radical  change.  The  disposition  of  mind,  now  gener- 
ally called  the  Voltairean,  growing  through  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  penetrated  deep  and  with  cumulative 
force  into  the  social  mind;  by  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury nothing  was  sacred.  It  was  not  merely  question 
of  changing  the  form  of  government.  The  attack 
struck  at  the  very  fundamentals  of  national  thought. 
The  religious  doctrine  impugned,  men  asked  over  again 
and  sought  replies  to  questions  which,  it  had  been  sup- 
posed, religion  had  settled  finally.  During  the  progress 
of  the  Revolution,  as  during  the  preceding  century,  all 
the  problems  of  life  were  turned  over  and  new  theories 
were  advanced  concerning  the  origin  of  man,  and  the 
reasons  for  his  existence,  both  as  an  individual  and 
as  a  member  of  society;  above  all,  concerning  the  ques- 
tion underlying  all  others,  the  question  as  to  what  is 
the  end  of  both  man  and  society,  and  what  is  the  pur- 
9  129 


130       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

pose  of  the  universe.  From  the  weightiest  problems 
which  can  present  themselves  to  human  thinking,  down 
to  the  most  trivial  queries  of  every-day  life,  all  as- 
pects of  social  existence  were  called  into  question  and 
pronounced  upon.  The  principles  of  the  Kevolution 
are  synonymous  with  an  attempt  to  reorder,  not  merely 
the  positive  law  of  the  country,  but  the  positive  moral- 
ity which  slowly  works  changes  in  positive  law.  The 
French  Kevolution  was  a  remarkable  instance  where  a 
number  of  men  dreamed  of  taking  upon  themselves  the 
gigantic  task  of  modifying  by  concerted  action,  finally 
and  certainly,  both  the  positive  morality  and  the  code 
of  laws;  they  planned  to  rebuild  not  only  the  social 
structure  but  also  the  foundation  upon  which  it  stood. 
The  absence  of  economic  theory  in  the  principles 
of  the  Kevolution  scarcely  needs  more  than  assertion. 
The  crisis  was  a  political  crisis,  and,  if  there  was  an 
economic  cause  at  the  bottom,  nobody  discerned  it. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  wherever  economic  principles 
played  any  part  in  the  French  Revolution,  such  prin- 
ciples were  the  philosophical  theories  of  the  Physio- 
crats. If  wealth  was  desired,  it  was  in  order  to  an  in- 
creased happiness;  if  production,  more  especially  agri- 
culture was  to  be  encouraged,  it  was  because  this  was 
held  to  be  the  means,  and  the  only  means,  to  add  to 
the  national  wealth.  And  all  this  is  the  physiocratic 
doctrine.  As  for  the  relation  of  government  in  indus- 
try, the  principle  of  laissez-faire,  another  principle 
made  current  by  the  Physiocrats,  theoretically  domi- 
nated the  Kevolution.  All  these  notions  can  hardly  be 
called  principles  of  political  economy;  they  are  rather 
philosophy  and  politics  in  a  jumble.    Reading,  at  the 


^BEIR  POUftCAL  CilAkACTER.  ^31 

various  legislative  bodies  and  at  the  clubs,  those 
speeches  which  touched  upon  questions  of  practical 
finance  and  taxation,  a  doubt  occurs  as  to  whether 
there  was,  in  the  minds  of  the  speakers,  any  particular 
appreciation  of  the  existence  of  a  special  set  of  prob- 
lems called  economic.  The  question  turned  rather 
upon  the  state  policy  in  relation  to  the  individual  as 
an  agent  in  industrial  life.  It  would  almost  be  af- 
fectation to  try  to  formulate  any  theory  of  economics 
from  the  passing  phrases  which  might  be  found  here 
and  there.  The  Revolution  was  a  political  movement, 
and  its  fundamental  principles  form  a  political  phil- 
osophy. 

The  special  character  of  these  principles  of  the  Revo- 
lution will  then  be  sufficiently  defined  if  the  hypo- 
thesis concerning  the  ultimate  nature  of  the  universe, 
and  the  theories  with  regard  to  man  and  society  be 
stated,  along  with  the  most  fundamental  of  the  politi- 
cal principles.  The  Law  of  Nature  {Loi  natnrel),  the 
doctrine  of  the  social  contract,  the  theory  of  Natural 
Rights  (Droits  natiirels)  and  such  derivative  political 
principles  as  the  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty,  the 
right  of  social  supremacy  in  conducting  the  affairs  of 
the  national  life,  make  up  the  essential  parts  of  the 
political  and  social  faith  of  the  time;  these  principles 
have,  therefore,  been  selected  for  exposition. 

11. 

One  important  fact  needs  emphasis  in  regard  to  the 
primary  conceptions  of  the  Revolution.  Throughout 
the  period  the  fundamental  notions  did  not  change. 
In  1789  the  theories  of  man  and  of  society  are  the 


132        PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

same  as  those  of  1793.  Clennont-Tonnerre,  Sieyes, 
Mirabeau,  Vergniaud,  Saint  Just,  Marat,  each  held  a 
fundamental  hypothesis  which  differed  but  slightly. 
All,  consciously  or  instinctively,  started  from  the  no- 
tion of  a  divine  plan,  whose  end  was  human  happiness; 
all  were  equally  loyal  to  the  Eights  of  Man  and  the 
Social  Contract.  As  will  be  seen,  it  is  the  application 
of  these  conceptions,  it  is  those  ideas  belonging  most 
specifically  to  the  theory  of  politics  which  are  not  the 
same  during  the  period  in  question.  The  principle  of 
republicanism  is  not  the  dominant  idea  in  ^89  —  far 
from  it.  A  more  or  less  recognized  spirit  of  compro- 
mise, a  sense  of  the  value  of  gradual  change  checked 
legislative  reform  at  constitutional  monarchy  in  '91, 
but  that  theory  of  government  went  down  altogether 
before  the  rage  for  democracy  which  gave  power  to 
the  constitution-makers  of  '93.  However,  the  tem- 
perate politician  of  '91  and  the  frenzied  democrat  of 
'93  held  to  the  same  fundamental  conceptions.  One 
set  of  primary  notions  controlled  the  whole  movement. 
It  is  these  conceptions  which  are  now  to  be  stated. 
•  The  principles  of  the  Eevolution  were,  as  a  whole, 
theories  having  to  do  with  the  conditions  of  a  mun- 
dane existence;  they  were  a  new  code  of  morality  and 
politics,  not  metaphysical  or  religious  principles  in 
any  real  sense.  The  whole  doctrine  implies  faith  in 
the  power  of  the  untrammeled  human  will  to  bring 
about  permanently  harmonious  social  relations.  Like 
the  eighteenth  century  philosophy  which  bred  it,  the 
l-evolutionary  theory  posited  the  individual  will  but 
took  small    account  of   its  possible  beginnings.     Yet 


LAW  OF  NATURE.  I33 

there  was  some  attempt  at  an  explanation  of  final 
causes.  The  foundation  of  the  revolutionary  faith 
was  flimsy,  but  there  was  such  a  foundation  —  the  doc- 
trine of  natural  or  rational  religion.  No  longer  will- 
ing to  listen  to  theologians,  no  longer  recognizing  an 
external  authority,  the  revolutionists  appealed  from  a 
ruling  church  or  a  self-revealing  God,  to  an  inner  con- 
science which  stood  ready  to  tell  the  same  truth  to  each 
man  who  looked  within  himself.  The  revolutionists  of 
'89  and  '93  turned  to  Nature  as  the  only  positive  au- 
thority, and  set  at  naught  deductions  based  upon  cus- 
toms or  upon  principles  framed  by  any  constituted 
power. 

In  studying  the  debates  of  the  period,  it  is  at  first 
difficult  to  find  any  real  denial  of  the  old  principles 
which  recognized  the  infallible  dogma  of  a  dominant 
church.  In  the  Constituent  Assembly,  a  somewhat 
sophistical  desire  to  preserve  the  Catholic  cult,^  strip- 

1  It  is  of  interest  to  remember  the  attitude  of  the  Assembly 
in  regard  to  Catholicism.  One  scene  will  serve  as  type  of  any 
of  the  earlier  ones.  At  the  stance  of  April  13,  1791  (Choix 
de  Rapports  II,  p.  102),  Dom  Gerle  proposed  to  decree  the 
Catholic  religion  as  the  state  religion;  a  heated  debate  fol- 
lowed, in  which  some  of  the  good  Bishops  and  Abb^s  lost 
their  tempers,  and  Mirabeau  cited  the  Saint  Bartholomew  mas- 
sacre with  crushing  effect.  The  assembly  eventually  agreed 
upon  this  decree :  "  Whereas,  the  Assembly  has  not,  nor  ever 
can  have,  any  power  over  consciences  or  religious  opinions; 
whereas,  the  majesty  of  religion  and  the  profound  respect  due 
to  it,  does  not  permit  that  it  become  subject  of  deliberation : 
whereas,  the  attachment  of  the  National  Assembly  to  the 
Catholic  cult  could  not  be  doubted  at  a  moment  when  this 
cult  was  being  placed  by  it  in  first  rank  of  public  expenses; 
and,  whereas,  a  unanimous  movement  of  respect  has  expressed 
opinion  in  the  only  manner  which  can  comport  with  the  dig- 
nity of  the  religion  and  the  character  of  the  Assembly,"  etc. 
Comp.  also,  Moniteur,  stance  of  February  14,  1790,  III,  p. 


][34        PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

ping  it  of  its  temporal  power  only,  is  plainly  evident. 
In  the  later  assemblies,  there  was,  of  course,  a  candidly 
avowed  intention  to  do  away  with  all  Christian  cults.^ 
But  whether  the  speaker  was  outward  conformist  or 
philosopher,  the  notion  of  final  causes  which  each  en- 
tertain really  differed  but  slightly. 

What  may  be  called  the  first  principle  in  all  the  revo- 
lutionary philosophy  defined  a  plan  and  purpose  un- 
derlying the  universe.  The  revolutionary  theory 
started  from  the  belief  in  an  absolute  and  directed 
tendency  in  phenomena.  Perhaps  the  majority  con- 
tinued to  believe  that  the  universe  was  the  work  of 
an  anthropomorphic  divinity  surrounded  by  a  host  of 
worshipful  satellites;  the  philosophy  of  that  minority 
who  worked  the  change  in  the  social  organization  be- 
gan more  and  more  avowedly  with  the  idea  of  a  bene- 
ficent First  Cause,  God  or  Nature,^  concerning  whose 
origin  and  personality  it  would  be  futile  to  wonder. 
The  prevailing  attitude  among  the  leaders  was  that 
which  Pope  expresses  when  he  apostrophizes  a 

"  Great  First  Cause,  least  understood. 
Who  all  my  sense  combined, 
To  Ivnow  but  this,  that  Thou  art  good 
And  that  myself  am  blind." 

Even  in  '93  and  '94  deity  was  officially  recognized."* 
Translated  and  popularized  by  Voltaire,  the  Deism  of 

363.  Comp.  also,  Camus,  seance  of  June  1,  1790.  "  Nous 
pouvons  changer  la  religion,  mais  nous  ne  voulons  pas." 

2  Comp.  Aulard,  Le  Culte  de  la  Raison  et  le  Culte  de  I'Etre 
Supreme. 

3  Nature  is  used  in  the  widest  sense,  as  the  underlying  prin- 
ciple at  the  root  of  all  time  and  space  phenomena. 

4  As  for  example,  when  Barere,  in  August,  1793,  in  his  re- 
port on  the  state  of  the  republic,  speaks  of  the  statue  of  the 


LAW  OF  NATURE.  I35 

Pope  and  Bolingbroke  had  come  to  ask  first  place  as  a 
national  religion. 

On  the  question  of  a  cosmogony,  the  difference  of 
opinion  between  the  older  cults  and  the  doctrine  of 
the  Revolution  is  not  vital.  In  both  cases,  the  original 
power  was  thought  of  as  having  conceived  and  ordained 
upon  an  unalterable  plan  and  in  a  spirit  of  extreme 
beneficence,  a  vast  scheme  of  inorganic  and  organic 
life;  all  believed  that  this  great  creative  work  had 
been  done  solely  to  promote  the  well-being  of  man.  In 
both  cases,  the  original  Cause  was  believed  to  have  re- 
mained entirely  outside  the  creation  which  was  his 
work.  God  or  Nature  had  made  the  universe,  had  fixed 
its  workings,  had  set  man  at  the  head  of  it;  man  him- 
self must  discover  the  proper  use  of  it.  Christian 
prelates  or  Deists,  conformists  or  disciples  of  Natural 
religion  in  any  of  its  forms,  each  and  all  alike  ren- 
dered homage  to  a  power  external  to  the  earth  they 
inhabited, —  a  Power  which  had  given  them  being  and 
endowed  them  with  the  right  and  duty  to  make  the 
best  possible  use  of  the  land  and  its  bounties. 

The  revolutionary  deism  set  out  then  with  the  same 
primary  idea  as  did  orthodoxy;  but,  following  the  lead 
of  the  philosophers,  it  soon  definitely  rejected  external 
authority  as  the  sanction  to  personal  or  social  conduct, 
and  opposed  a  belief  in  earthly  happiness  to  the 
Churches  idea  of  waiting  patiently  for  the  joys  of  the 
hereafter.  First,  as  to  the  separation  of  opinion  re- 
republic,  which  is  to  be  created,  "  Sous  les  regards  du  L^gis- 
lateur  Eternal."  Morse-Stephens.  Orators  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, II,  p.  ii.  Compare  also  Aulard,  Le  Culte  de  la  Raison 
et  le  Culte  de  TEtre  Supreme,  chapters  iii,  iv,  vii  and  viii. 


136        PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

garding  the  origin  of  man's  knowledge  concerning 
fundamental  truth. 

Throughout  the  eighteenth  century  orthodox  doc- 
trine had  rested  or  professed  to  rest  on  revelation.  Men 
had  believed  that,  if  they  knew  the  purpose  of  the  uni- 
verse, it  was  because  at  some  time  there  had  been  di- 
rect communication  between  the  prime  Cause  of  all 
things  and  some  favored  few  among  the  dwellers  upon 
earth,  and  they  held  that  the  whole  law  contained  in 
such  communication  had  been  vested  in  an  organized 
ecclesiastical  authority  which  had  the  sole  right  to  form 
and  to  watch  over  men's  consciences  and  acts.  The 
doctrine  of  the  Revolution,  on  the  contrary,  rejected  all 
revelation  as  a  "  harmful  creed "  (croyance  funeste).^ 
For  these  rationalists,  the  truths  which  men  arrived  at 
by  reason  were  the  only  "  revelation ; "  absolute  knowl- 
edge with  regard  to  the  secrets  of  the  universe  was  ac- 
cessible to  the  reason  and  to  the  reason  alone.  Faith 
in  rational  principles  almost  entirely  took  the  place  of 
faith  in  mystic  notions  or  in  canons  of  theology;  the 
final  criterion,  whether  for  personal  or  social  conduct, 
was  the  human  intelligence.  The  final  authority  — 
and  before  it  revealed  religion  and  popish  infallibility 
had  no  force  —  was  the  instinct  which  Nature  had 
given  each  man,  and  which  his  reason  alone  could 
interpret. 

As  to  the  existence  possible  during  an  earthly  career, 
the    difference  is  likewise  radical.      The    doctrine  of 

5  Comp.  Volney.  Cat^chisme  de  citoyen  f rangais  ( published 
1793),  p.  177.  See  also,  Bonneville  and  Blanchard,  whose 
ideas  are  given  in  Laurent.  La  Revolution  frangaise,  II,  pp. 
493-498, 


LAW  OF  NATURE.  I37 

revelation  conceived  of  post-mundane  life  as  the  only 
consolation  for  the  vexations  and  miseries  of  an 
earthly  life.  The  new  creed,  thrilling  with  the  idea 
of  an  original  earthly  paradise,  believed  it  was  per- 
fectly possible  for  the  concerted  action  of  man  to  re- 
store those  happy  conditions  which  had  originally  been 
arranged  for  the  first  human  inhabitants  of  this  planet, 
and  it  believed  that  it  was  eminently  necessary  to  do 
this.  Whether  the  supporters  of  the  new  thinking  ex- 
pressed their  theory  by  a  worship  of  the  supernatural, 
the  natural  or  the  combination  of  these  two  which  he 
conceived  man  to  be;  whether  the  divinity  was  a  Su- 
preme Being,  N"ature  or  Man,  the  avowed  or  tacit  con- 
ception from  which  all  later  principles  derived,  was 
this  one  of  a  purpose  in  the  universe,  and  that  purpose 
the  ultimate  contentment  of  all  humanity.  Since 
Providence,  or  more  usually  Nature,  had  arranged  by 
immutable  and  unerring  though  not  inscrutable  laws, 
a  contented  existence  for  man,  the  wise  man  was  he 
who  studied  to  discover  these  laws  and  so  to  insure 
the  fulfillment  of  the  original  plan.  The  first  duty  of 
the  philosopher,  and  yet  more  of  the  legislator,  was  to 
seek  out  what  had  been  the  normal  conditions,  and 
then  to  restore  those  conditions  to  a  world  which  had 
been  disastrously  deprived  of  them.  It  rested  alto- 
gether within  man's  competence  to  do  this;  the  affairs 
of  this  world  were  entirely  subject  to  the  free  will  of 
the  individual.  If  man  respected  the  leading  prin- 
ciples which  his  reason  could  make  clear  to  him,  an 
end  to  all  unhappiness  here  below  might  confidently 
be  expected.  By  the  highway  of  reason,  with  virtue  as 
guide,  it  was  possible  to  discover  and.  realize  terrestrial 


•r^«5 


j^38       PRINCIPLED  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

happiness.^  All  social  unrest,  it  was  believed,  was  the 
result  of  misunderstanding  this  truth.  When  legisla- 
tors could  be  taught  to  keep  this  doctrine  permanently 
and  intelligently  before  them,  social  happiness  might 
soon  be  expected.  Men  now  combined  the  utilitarian 
doctrine  of  the  Encyclopedists  and  the  Physiocrats 
with  the  sentimental  teachings  of  Kousseau,  and  pro- 
claimed the  happiness  of  humanity  to  be  the  end  of  all 
association. 

This,  the  doctrine  of  Natural  Law,  was  the  current 
and  admired  theory  all  through  the  Revolutionary 
period.  It  was  this  theory  which,  accepted  in  its  full 
meaning,  altered  the  whole  complexion  of  social  ac- 
tivity. When  it  was  denied  that  life  here  below  was 
merely  a  preparation  for  another  world;  when  it  was 
declared  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  was  a  strictly  mun- 
dane business,  having  to  do  with  the  best  possible  ar- 
rangement of  individual  and  social  relations  here, 
revolutionary  action  received  its  inspiration  and  justifi- 
cation. 

All  other  ideas  of  the  Revolution  rested  upon  this 
belief  in  a  Natural  Law  making  for  terrestrial  con- 
tent. The  first  principles  of  the  revolutionary  philo- 
sophy center  about  the  faith  in  a  propensity  in  all 
creation,  a  propensity  which  was  believed  to  tend  al- 
ways to  the  happiness  of  man. 

When  we  come  to  the  question  of  the  original  con- 
dition of  man  and  the  beginnings  of  society,  we  do 

6  Comp.  Boissy  d'Anglas  —  Voulez-vous  detruire  le  fanatisme 
et  la  superstition?  Offrez  a  rhomme  des  lumieres.  Voulez- 
vous  le  disposer  a  recevoir  des  lumieres.  Sachez  le  rendre 
heureux  et  libra.    Cited  in  Laurent,  op.  cit.,  II,  p.  457. 


LAW  OF  NATURE.  I39 

not  find  the  same  unity  of  opinion  that  prevailed  con- 
cerning the  Law  of  Nature.  On  this  point  there  is  an 
evident  separation  of  theory.  Two  conceptions  are  cur- 
rent: the  one,  that  idea  of  the  providentially  happy 
original  man,  which  Kousseau  had  popularized;  the 
other,  the  idea  of  an  original  savage.  Both  theories 
of  the  primitive  man  had  a  certain  support  among 
those  leaders  who,  in  a  sense,  forced  the  new  principles 
upon  the  nation. 

It  is  certain  that  during  the  Kevolution,  and  for  a 
long  time  after,  the  idea,  of  a  '^  natural  man "  had 
precedence  as  a  popular  notion.  Probably  the  majority 
of  the  lawmakers  of  the  Eevolution  started  their  civil 
and  political  code  with  the  image  from  which  our 
own  time  has  by  no  means  entirely  freed  itself  —  the 
image  of  an  ideal  primeval  man,  free  from  prejudices, 
free  from  vicious  desires,  or  unhealthy  notions  of  self- 
denial  which  he  miscalled  virtues.  Over  and  over  in 
the  three  successive  legislatures,  it  is  implied  or  stated 
that,  in  a  primitive  period  of  terrestrial  life,  man  lived 
in  greatest  happiness  because  he  had  complete  liberty.'^ 
Each  man  came  from  the  hands  of  a  beneficent  Nature 
endowed  with  entire  freedom;  his  sole  duty,  the  pursuit 
of  happiness ;  his  only  law,  the  preservation  of  his  being. 
Moreover,  each  man  was  endowed  by  Nature  with  the 
right  to  precisely  the  same  amount  of  pleasure  as  any 

7Comp.  Robespierre's  speech  on  property,  Stance  of  April 
24,  1793.  Vergniaud,  speech  of  Oct.  25,  1791,  on  the  Emigres; 
Claude  Fauchet,  in  Blanc,  Histoire  de  la  Revolution  fran- 
caise,  V,  p.  121 :  Jeanbon  de  Saint  Andr6,  "  Je  sais  qu'il  y  a 
dans  le  coeur  de  Thomme  une  tendance  a  la  v§rit6,"  etc.,  s6ance 
May  8,  1793.    Choix  de  Rapports,  XI,  295-296, 


140        PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

other  man;  each  was  equal  to  his  fellow.^  That  each 
man  had  the  natural  and  inalienable  right  to  come  and 
go  as  he  pleased;  to  enjoy  whatever  he  could  make  his 
own  and  to  remain  in  unmolested  possession  of  it,  were 
so  many  corollaries  of  the  original  proposition  of  a  free 
and  happy  primitive  man.^  Anterior  to  society,  there 
had  only  been  faultless  human  beings,  each  having  the 
eternal  right  to  liberty,  to  equality,  and  to  the  posses- 
sion of  his  own  goods;  and  this  natural  man,  free  and 
contented,  was  the  ideal  for  the  social  man  to  strive 
after. 

In  opposition  to  this  notion  of  a  "  natural "  man 
stood  the  idea  of  a  primeval  savage,  who  depended  for 
his  development  upon  that  which  association  with 
others  brought  to  him.  Even  among  the  leaders  of 
radicalism,  there  were  men  who  energetically  rejected 
the  idea  made  current  by  Eousseau's  love  of  paradox. 
In  parliamentary  debates,  the  primeval  savage,  pain- 
fully and  unceasingly  struggling  for  his  daily  nutri- 
ment, plays  a  less  prominent,  but  none  the  less  a  fre- 
quent part,  in  discussions.  An  appreciable  number  of 
persons,  whose  ideas  got  a  following  among  the  stronger 
men  of  the  time,  held  to  the  theory  of  social  develop- 
ment suggested  by  Turgot,  and  made  current  during 
the  Revolution  by  Condorcet^^  and  many  of  the 
Gironde. 

sComp.  Declaration  of  Rights  of  '93,  art.  3. 

9Comp.  Declaration  of  Rights  of  '89.  Especially  art.  2, 
title  I,  of  Constitution  of  1791 ;  and  arts.  2-7  and  18  of  the 
Declaration  of  '93. 

lOEsquisse  d'Un  Tableau  Historique  des  progr^s  de  I'Esprit 
Humain.     Published   1793.     Volney    (Cat6chisme  de   Citoyen 


PRIMITIVE  SOCIETY.  141 

One  debate  might  be  cited^*  to  show  how  the  differ- 
ence of  opinion  on  the  matter  stood.  The  question 
turned  upon  the  first  article  of  the  Declaration  of 
Eights.  As  first  given  out,  the  article  read  thus :  "  The 
natural,  civil  and  political  rights  of  men  are  liberty, 
equality,  security,  property,  the  social  guarantee  and  re- 
sistance to  oppression.^^  A  deputy^^  at  once  arose  and 
protested.  "  I  don't  well  understand  what  the  Commit- 
tee desired  to  say  by  these  words,  natural  right.  In  the 
state  of  pure  nature,  no  rights  exist  unless  those  of 
force;  in  the  state  of  nature,  man  has  a  right  to  that 
which  he  may  get  at,  and  this  right  is  only  limited  by 
possibility;  this  right  he  abandons  from  the  moment 
that  he  enters  into  society,"  etc.  Another^^  follows  him 
with  a  protest  that  man  is  innately  social,  that  "  the 
social  state  is  the  veritable  natural  state  of  man.''  Verg- 
niaud  proposed  a  compromise,  and,  the  majority  of  the 
Convention  consenting,  the  article  is  changed  so  that  it 
reads,  "  The  Eights  of  Man  in  society."^*  Thus,  al- 
though there  had  been  a  committee  who  held  to  the 
theory  of  a  natural  man,  with  his  inalienable  natural 
rights,  it  is  clear  that  by  1793  the  dominant  opinion  in 
the  legislative  body  recognized  only  the  Eights  of  Man 
in  society,  and  thus  denied  the  "  bon  sauvage." 

However,  whether  founded  on  the  doctrine  of  a  natu- 
ral or  a  social  man,  whether  held  to  originate  anterior 
to  society  or  to    begin  with    social    organization,  the 

francais)   scouts  the  idea  of  the  original  happy  savage   (bon 
sauvage). 

11  Stance  of  April  17,  1793. 

12  Lasouroe. 

13  Garran-Coulon. 

l4Choix  de  Rapports,  XII,  pp.  286  et  sq. 


14:2       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

theory  of  inalienable  individual  rights  was  universally 
accredited  during  the  Eevolution.  The  later  opinion, 
just  instanced,  resulted  from  an  enlarged  conception  of 
the  social  right  as  against  the  individual  right;  it  did 
not,  any  more  than  the  theory  it  opposed,  deny  certain 
"  natural  "  and  reserved  rights  to  each  individual.  The 
conception  of  Natural  Eights  and  of  their  relation  to 
the  association  of  men  played  then  a  most  important 
part  in  this  new  political  theory.  Men  differed  in  re- 
gard to  the  social  guarantee  of  these  rights;  they  rarely 
denied  their  real  and  important  political  bearing.  The 
theory  was  too  good  a  weapon  against  the  old  authorities 
for  it  to  have  been  neglected  by  the  practical  men  of 
the  Eevolution,  even  though  some  of  them  may  have 
had  little  faith  in  its  philosophical  truth.  The  doctrine 
of  "  Droits  naturels "  usually  derived  from  the  meta- 
physical conception  of  a  Law  of  Nature  —  a  conception 
that,  in  its  turn,  has  been  seen  to  be  practically  the  ap- 
peal from  an  organized  social  sanction  to  an  individual 
power  and  right  of  judgment  —  is  the  conspicuous 
principle  in  the  new  creed. 

Before  explaining  how  the  more  notable  Natural 
Eights  in  society  were  regarded  during  the  Eevolu- 
tion, it  remains,  in  this  summary  explanation  of  basic 
conceptions,  to  show  how  the  revolutionists  imagined 
political  society  to  have  originated.  The  revolutionists 
for  the  most  part  adopted  Eousseau's  fallacy  of  the 
Social  Contract,  by  which  Eights  were  conceived  to 
have  been  protected  by  a  partial  surrender  of  most  of 
them. 

Under  the  prevailing  notions  of  the  Eevolution,  as 
under  those  of  the  eighteenth  century,  all  association 
was  the  result  of  a  conscious  act,  an  act  which  had 


SOCIAL  CONTRACT.  ][43 

been  instigated  by  the  purely  self-interested  and  utili- 
tarian motive  of  a  more  comfortable  conservation  of 
natural  rights.  Current  theory  held  that,  in  a  non- 
social  state,  each  man  would  seek  his  own  happi- 
ness, irrespective  of  that  of  others;  that,  in  an  ir- 
regulated  association  of  man  with  his  fellows,  a  con- 
dition of  things  so  intolerable  had  come  about  that  the 
necessity  for  some  device  by  which  peace  might  be  at- 
tained, had  grown  always  more  apparent  to  each  man, 
and  so  in  every  instance,  agreement  to  a  social 
arrangement  of  some  sort  had  become  imperative.  A 
compact  voluntarily  entered  upon  by  all  members  of 
the  association  had  been  the  fundamental  fact  of  or- 
ganized association.  The  same  utter  blindness  to  psy- 
chological differences  in  men  which  characterised  the 
thought  of  the  century,  continues  to  be  the  mode  dur- 
ing the  Ee volution.  Only  a  minority,  and  these 
not  the  leaders,  recognized  that  association  began 
in  the  necessities  of  man's  instinct  and  the  fact  of 
individual  usurpation  ;^^  men  who  realized  that  dif- 
ferences of  endowment  and  strength  make  leaders  of 
some,  and  more  or  less  willing  followers  of  others,  were 
not  those  whose  opinion  carried  weight  at  this  time. 
The  fundamental  dogma  concerning  the  origin  of  soci- 
ety, most  popular  at  the  time  now  under  discussion  held 
that,  at  some  period  antecedent  to  the  existence  of  so- 
ciety,^® men  had  come  together,  and,  in  order  to  have 

15  There  was  an  appreciable  minority  who,  like  Volney,  took 
this  position. 

16  Or  again  at  any  given  period  of  social  change.  When 
the  Convention  was  called,  the  idea  was  stated  in  so  many 
words.    Couthon  rises  to  declare  that  the  deputies  had  been 


144       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

peace  and  the  means  for  fullest  enjoyment,  had  by 
a  voluntary  act  resigned  a  certain  part  of  their  indi- 
vidual will  in  favor  of  the  general  will. 

Men  were  supposed  to  have  entered  into  the  Social 
Contract  for  reasons  purely  egotistical;  but  the  revolu- 
tionists, as  Rousseau  had  done,  laid  most  emphasis  upon 
the  idea  that,  in  the  interests  of  that  peace  for  which 
the  contract  was  made,  men  must  be  ready  to  make 
a  personal  submission  to  a  general  will.  It  was  usual 
to  urge  that  what  though  the  original  reason  for  giv- 
ing up  the  full  exercise  of  the  individual  will  had  been 
purely  utilitarian,  it  was  now  a  moral  duty  so  to  sub- 
mit the  particular  to  the  general  will.^"^  The  end  in 
which  the  social  contract  was  made,  could  only  be 
accomplished  when  each  should  fulfill  this  sacred  duty. 
By  the  terms  of  the  social  contract  then,  men  recog- 
nized that  it  was  necessarily  the  primary  duty  of  so- 
ciety "to  disarm  the  oppression  which  might  follow 
from  the  play  of  natural  inequality."^^  The  end  of 
association  is  to  oppose  to  the  possible  tyranny  of  the 
one,  the  force  which  results  from  the  association  of  all. 
Thus,  under  the  ideas  which  grew  out  of  the  notion  of 
the  social  contract,  the  sovereignty  of  the  individual 
becomes  the  sovereignty  of  the  whole  association  —  a 

"  called  together  from  all  parts  of  the  empire  to  draw  up  a 
plan  of  social  contract."      (Moniteur,  XIV,  p.  6.) 

17  Comp.  resolutions  of  the  Due  d'Aiguillon  and  the  Due 
de  Noailles  on  the  night  of  August  4,  1789. — "  L'Assembl^e 
Nationale  consid^rant  que  le  premier  et  le  plus  sacr§  de  ses 
devoirs  est  de  faire  c^d6r  les  int^rets  particuliers  et  person- 
nels a  1  int^ret  g^n^rale,"  etc.     (Moniteur,  I,  p.  280.) 

18 The  reasoning  is  Robespierre's  (comp.  Blanc,  op.  cit., 
VII,  p.  265);  comp.  also  Declaration  of  '89,  art.  1-2;  also 
Vergniaud  in  speech  on  Emigres,  October  25,  1791. 


SOCIAL  CONTRACT.  I45 

sovereignty  in  which  each  separate  will  has  the  undis- 
puted right  to  express  itself  freely,  but  the  equally 
certain  duty  of  finally  submitting  to  the  will  of  the 
majority. 

The  idea  that  government  derives  from  this  volun- 
tary social  organization,  was  as  much  the  ruling  idea 
of  the  Revolution  as  it  had  been  a  prominent  part  of 
the  radical  thought  of  the  preceding  century.  Social 
control,  it  was  said,  cannot  be  exercised  except  by 
means  of  certain  prearranged  forms,  whence  govern- 
ment, "  a  set  of  determined  instruments  for  the  exer- 
cise of  this  force,"  is  a  necessity.^^  The  direction  for 
the  affairs  of  the  whole  society  must,  by  an  act  of  the 
general  will,  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  some  organized 
power.  Polity  arises  in  the  course  of  human  asso- 
ciation from  the  necessity  for  the  protection  of  the 
interests  of  all,  against  the  private  interests  of  each. 

Political  Society  then  was  held  to  be  a  voluntary  act 
deriving  from  a  voluntary  resignation  made  by  each 
member  of  the  body  politic.  Polity  rests  on,  and  is  al- 
ways subject,  both  for  its  existence  and  its  form,  to 
the  same  consent  which  was  the  original  source  of  the 
association.  Thus,  always,  as  the  final  pivot  on  which 
the  equilibrium  of  the  social  structure  depends,  we  have 
the  individual  will  of  the  several  members  of  the  body 
politic.  Under  the  doctrine  of  the  Revolution,  the  in- 
dividual is  at  once  the  governor  and  the  governed. 
Whichever  role  he  plays,  he  is  held  to  play  it  by  his 
voluntary  act. 

i» Robespierre  in  Lettres  a  ses  Commettants.     (Blanc,  op. 
cit.,  Vol.  VII,  p.  2650 
10 


146       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

The  social  contract  is  in  fact  the  final  term  of  a  series 
of  principles  having  to  do  with  man  and  society,  a  series 
of  principles  whose  sum  is  a  genuine  apotheosis  of  the 
individual.  All  social  life,  its  beginning,  its  char- 
acter and  its  conclusion,  rests  upon  the  free  will  of  man. 
The  world  is  for  man's  enjoyment,  and  the  duty  and 
right  of  each  individual  is  to  partake  of  its  gifts. 
Each  man,  as  man,  has  an  equal  right  to  the  sum  of 
pleasures  which  the  original  plan  massed  up  in  the 
universe.  Each  man  had  become  a  member  of  so- 
ciety with  these  rights  as  his  original  possession,  along 
with  the  gift  of  his  existence.  Whatever  subtraction  he 
had  made  from  these  rights,  had  been  made  by  a  vol- 
untary act.  Political  society  is  the  invention  of  man. 
Free  will  and  the  instinct  for  peace  and  happiness  are 
the  original  terms  of  a  proposition  whose  conclusion 
is  the  social  contract. 

This  general  character  of  the  revolutionary  philos- 
ophy has  been  admirably  summarized  by  a  recent 
French  writer.  "  The  Revolution,  Cartesian,  and  opti- 
mist,'' says  M.  Michel,  "has  exalted  the  human  will 
and  proclaimed  the  supreme  power  of  method.  The 
arrangement  of  political  power  seemed  a  problem  of 
mechanics  or  of  algebra.  To  state  this  problem 
well,  to  treat  it  according  to  correct  methods,  was  to 
make  certain  of  solving  it.  Know  how  to  take  thyself, 
the  Ee volution  had  said  to  man.  Weigh  with  care  the 
terms  of  the  contract  to  which  you  subscribe,  to  which 
your  fellow-citizens  like  yourself  subscribe,  and  you 
will  infallibly  form  a  state  where  all  will  be  for  the 
best,  where  justice  and  virtue  will  rule.     You  are  by 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN,  -^^^j 

your  very  essence  free  and  reasonable;  you  possess  rights 
anterior  to  all  convention,  anterior  to  the  social  state 
itself.  Society  could  not  have  other  aim  than  to  guar- 
antee to  all  its  members  the  exercise  of  their  rights. 
Leave  the  past,  which  is  dead.  Occupy  yourself  with 
the  future,  which  germinates  in  the  present.  Trust 
in  your  thought  and  the  creative  force  which  belongs 
to  it."^^  The  whole  responsibility  for  social  well- 
being  rested  finally,  in  theory  at  least,  upon  the  indi- 
vidual act.  Every  preconception  of  the  Kevolution 
made  for  the  encouragement  of  a  revolt  against  organ- 
ized thought.  All  the  primary  conceptions  of  the 
time,  the  Law  of  Nature,  the  idea  of  Natural  Eights 
and  the  doctrine  of  the  Social  Contract,  were  built  upon 
this  positive  belief  in  the  validity  and  sanctity  of 
individual  judgment. 

III. 

It  has  been  said  that,  in  the  two  phases  of  the  Eevolu- 
tion,  there  was  no  change  in  primary  conceptions;  the 
same  cannot  be  said  of  the  doctrine  of  Natural  Rights; 
the  alteration  lay  in  the  theory  of  applied  politics,  and 
this  because  what  happened  in  the  first  years  of  the 
Revolution  produce  a  change  in  men^s  minds. 

The  swift  rush  of  events  which  hurried  France  from 
the  despotism  of  a  well-intentioned  if  incapable  mon- 
arch and  his  advisers  to  the  despotism  of  a  self-inter- 
ested and  theory-mad  faction,  and  so  worked  the  tran- 
sition from  absolutism  to  ochlocracy,  had,  as  direct 

20-21  L'ld^e  de  I'Etat.    p.  166. 


148 


PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 


cause,  a  psychological  change.  As  the  years  moved 
on,  an  appreciable  number  of  men,  who  began  their 
effort  for  social  reconstruction  in  the  belief  that  liberty, 
equality  and  fraternity  were  ideals  to  be  slowly  striven 
for,  were  encouraged  by  the  progress  of  events  to  feel  a 
feverish  certainty  that  the  ideal  might  at  once  be  made 
the  real.  A  conviction  that  the  highest  ideal  of  which 
they  could  dream  was  capable  of  formal  and  immediate 
expression,  seized  those  in  power,  and  history  has  there- 
fore, now,  as  always,  to  record  a  revolution  and  a  re- 
action. That  the  thoughts  of  the  individual  can  read- 
ily outstrip  the  social  thought,  is  one  of  those  great 
truths  which  the  wisest  of  men  realize  slowly,  and 
men  of  narrow,  or  little-developed  minds,  not  at  all.. 
Indifference  to  this  truth  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  social 
convulsions  with  their  doubtful  benefits.  That  a  reign 
of  terror  resulted  from  the  principles  of  revolution 
is  at  least  partly  attributable  to  this  ill-advised  faith 
of  a  comparatively  small  number  of  persons  in  the 
possibility  of  a  complete  and  instantaneous  social  recon- 
struction. 

As  a  consequence  of  the  rapid  transition  to  radical- 
ism, two  very  distinct  periods  are  discernible  in 
the  theories  which  have  to  do  with  the  application  of 
the  theory  of  Eights  cf  Man  to  the  conditions  of  po- 
litical society.  The  idea  had  not  the  same  force,  or  at 
least,  the  same  interpretation,  in  ^93  that  it  had  up  to 
^91.  N"o  theory  took  such  hold  of  the  early  revolution- 
ists as  did  the  idea  of  the  Natural  Eights  of  the 
individual.  The  individualistic  current  swept  France 
with   a   greater   and   more   lasting   intensity,    because 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN.  149 

the  minds  of  men  had  been  for  so  long  the  slaves 
of  a  theological  and  monarchic  polity  which  took  no 
account  of  persons.  In  '89,  the  talk  was  of  individual 
rights  and  the  state  as  guarantor  of  such  individual 
rights.  In  '93,  it  is  rational  social  rights,  rather  than 
natural  individual  rights,  which  get  defense  and  guar- 
antee in  the  laws.^^  Although  the  rights  of  the  citizen 
are  proclaimed  in  '89,  it  is  the  Rights  of  Man  that  are 
of  first  importance  during  the  second  period.  At  this 
latter  time,  a  state  determined  to  defend  the  rights  of 
all  men  makes  singular  inroads  upon  the  rights  of 
each  man ;  even  the  rights  of  Man  are  talked  of  far  less 
than  the  rights  of  the  poor  and  the  unfortunate.  How- 
ever, although  opinions  did  alter  as  to  how  far  the  vol- 
untarily created  social  right  finally  took  precedence  of 
the  original  individual  right,  the  doctrine  of  the  natural 
rights  of  each  individual  was  never  specifically  denied 
throughout  the  whole  time  in  question. 

To  draw  up  a  declaration  of  rights  was  the  first 
desire  of  an  overwrought  assembly.^^  The  idea  of 
putting  the  Eights  of  Man  into  an  instrument  of  posi- 
tive law  may  have  been  directly  inspired  by  Lafayette 
and  the  others  who  had  fought  in  America  and  returned 
full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  legal  document  by  which  a 

22 The  two  phases  of  the  Revolution  may  be  separated  thus: 
The  first,  from  '89  to  '91 ;  the  second,  corresponding  roughly 
with  th€  flight  of  the  king  to  Varennes  and  finishing  with  the 
fall  of  Robespierre. 

23  See  Moniteur,  I,  pp.  143-148.  When  Lafayette  brings 
forward  his  plans  for  a  declaration,  he  claims  that  they  "  ren- 
ferme  les  premiers  principes  de  toute  constitution,  les  pre- 
miers elements  de  toute  legislation."  Comp.  also  Bailly. 
Memoires,  I,  p.  304, 


150        PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

new  democracy  proclaimed  its  independence.  Pos- 
sibly, the  idea  of  giving  them  legal  form  was  taken 
from  the  Cahiers,  in  which  a  demand  for  the  declara- 
tion  of  rights  can  be  found.^^  However  suggested, 
whether  the  result  of  either  or  both  of  these  influences, 
the  notion  of  such  a  declaration  took  precedence  of 
all  others  in  the  Assembly,  and  for  weeks  men  who  had 
the  nation's  well-being  in  charge  busied  themselves 
with  drawing  up  a  purely  theoretical  preface  to  the 
constitutional  law. 

The  fact  is  often  forgotten  that  a  certain  minority 
opposed  drawing  up  a  declaration  of  rights.  Promi- 
nent men  like  Malouet,  Grandin,  the  Bishop  of  Langres 
and  of  Auxerre,  objected  to  making  a  set  of  metaphy- 
sical principles  into  positive  law.  The  act  they  argued 
"was  useless,"  and  "apt  to  mislead  the  ignorant,  be- 
cause abstract  and  one-sided."^  In  a  remarkably  sane 
speech,  whose  general  tenor  was  to  urge  that  the  con- 
stitution be  framed  first,  and  the  rights  later,  Malouet 
pleads  that  the  laws  were  only  the  "  result  and  ex- 
pression of  natural  rights  and  duties,"  and  that  there 
was  "  no  natural  right  which  did  not  find  itself  modi- 
fied by  natural  law;  therefore,  if  you  indicate  no  re- 
striction, why  present  to  men  in  all  their  plenitude 
rights  which  they  may  only  use  with  just  limitations  ?"26 
The  same  speaker  further  objects  that  always,  and  of 
necessity,  metaphysical  discussions  consume  much  time, 

24  See  e.  g.  the  Cahiers  of  the  nobles  at  Nantes,  of  the  Third 
Estate  of  Eennes,  and  those  of  Paris,  both  noblesse  and  Third 
(Cherest,  op.  cit.,  II,  pp.  466  et  seq.). 

25Moniteur,  I,  pp.  257  et  seq. 

26  Ibid,  p.  263. 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN,  151 

and  begs  that,  in  the  present  case,  the  greatest  possible 
haste  be  used  in  getting  to  the  actual  law  making.^^ 
The  minority  were  even  sufficiently  sane  to  object  that 
however  much  reason  dictated  a  declaration  of  rights, 
prudence  suggested  that  to  formulate  such  rights  was 
to  put  a  heavy  strain  upon  the  controlling  power  of 
government,  since  these  rights  "were  of  no  use  with- 
out force ;  "  and  how  would  it  be,  they  asked,  if  the  peo- 
ple rose  to  use  force  in  order  to  realize  them  entirely? 
In  spite  of  this  clear-headed  minority,  who  under- 
stood the  danger  involved  in  the  formal  presentation 
of  a  series  of  natural  rights  to  a  nation  entirely  inex- 
perienced in  self-government,  it  was  decreed  to  draw 
up  the  declaration.  The  desirability  of  the  form  had 
caught  the  imagination  of  the  majority.  When  such 
leaders  as  Mirabeau,^^  Cheniere,  Target,^^  de  Castellane, 
Barnave,  and  even  Malouet,  resigning  himself  to  the 

27Moniteur,  Vol.  I,  p.  263.  Bailly  in  his  Memoires,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  300-301,  is  of  this  opinion.  While  he  avows  that  the  idea 
of  expressing  these  rights  was  "  une  id^  tr§s  belle  et  tr§s 
philosophique  ",  he  says  "  ces  idees  metaphysiques  6garent  plus 
qu'elles  n'eclairent  la  multitude." 

28Mirabeau  was  on  the  whole  reluctant  to  have  the  right3 
formulated  until  the  constitution  had  been  framed  and  ac- 
cepted, (Choix  de  Rapports,  T,  p.  230.)  but  he  yielded  to 
the  weight  of  opinion,  and  put  the  force  of  his  arguments  on 
the  side  of  the  declaration.  He  was  one  of  the  committee  of 
five  who  drew  it  up.  How  completely  he  finally  indorsed  the 
idea  can  be  judged  from  his  words  in  reporting  the  plans  of 
the  committee.  The  rights  are  to  be  simple  and  popular,  he 
said,  "  c'est  ainsi  que  les  Americains  ont  fait  leur  declara- 
tion des  droits;  ils  en  ont  fl  dessein  6cart§  la  science;  ils  ont 
pr6sent6  les  vSrit^s  politiques  qu'il  s^agissait  de  fixer  sous 
une  fcrme  qui  put  devenir  facilement  celle  du  peuple,  ii  qui 
seul  la  liberte  importe  et  qui  seul  pent  la  maintenir." 

29  See  his  enthusiastic  and  interesting  speech  in  Choix  de 
Rapports,  I,  p.  223  et  seq. 


152        PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

current  of  opinion,  all  in  the  same  meeting  spoke  in 
favor  of  the  declaration  as  preface  to  the  constitution, 
a  few  counter  arguments,  were  they  ever  so  wise,  were 
not  likely  to  prevail.  The  majority  echoed  and  ap- 
plauded the  statement  that  "the  rights  of  man  in  so- 
ciety are  eternal,"  and  that  "no  sanction  is  necessary 
to  recognize  them  *  ♦  *  they  are  invariable  as 
justice,  eternal  as  reason;  applicable  to  all  ages  and 
to  all  countries.'^^^  If  thirty  years  later  men  could 
still  write  as  Cousin  did,  that  the  "  Droits  de  I'Homme 
et  du  Citoyen  "  were  "  the  greatest,  the  most  holy,  the 
most  beneficial  which  have  appeared  since  the  Evan- 
gele,"  it  is  not  astonishing  that,  filled  with  apostolic 
enthusiasm,  the  men  of  '89  felt  that  the  formulation 
of  these  new-found  rights  was  of  first  importance. 

Many  urged  that  there  be  a  careful  statement  of  them 
as  a  preventive  measure,  as  a  lasting  safeguard  against 
tyranny.  To  declare  the  Eights  of  Man,  said  one,  the 
Comte  d'Estraigne,  is,  for  Frenchmen,  "indispensable, 
in  order  that  should  Heaven  again  visit  them  with  the 
punishment  of  despotism,  they  might  at  least  be  able 
to  show  to  the  tyrant  the  injustice  of  his  pretentions, 
his  duties,  and  the  rights  of  the  people."^^  Or  again,^^ 
it  was  shown  that  the  Declaration  of  Rights  would  guide 
the  mind  as  the  complement  of  the  legislation  about  to 
be  undertaken.  Legislators  could  not  foresee  all  cases; 
the  Eights  of  Man  would  serve  as  the  National  Cate- 
chism.    Extremists  went  so  far  as  to  propose  to  call 

30'Speech  of  Due  de  Montmorency,  August  1,  1889.  Moni- 
teur,  I,  p.  26. 

31  Blanc,  op.  cit..  Ill,  p.  42. 

32  3jirn9,ve,    Moniteur,  I,  p.  262, 


RIGHTS  OF  MAlf,  ^5^ 

these  articles  the  constitution.  It  was  contended  that 
the  constitution  of  the  people  was  the  "  establishment 
of  those  natural  and  imprescriptible  rights  anterior  to 
laws,  which  latter  establish  only  relative  and  positive 
rights.  All  nations  have  then  the  same  constitution, 
since  they  all  have  the  same  rights."  Modern  consti- 
tutions, it  was  objected,  confounded  constitutions  with 
the  institutions  which  were  created  by  the  laws  based  on 
the  fundamental  constitution.  The  constitution  gave 
existence  to  the  political  bodies;  the  institutions  ar- 
ranged for  their  preservation;  whence  the  Declaration 
of  Eights  was  the  true  constitution.^^  This  discourse, 
*^  covered  with  plaudits  "  says  the  Moniteur,  is  but  one 
example  of  many  such  speeches,  so  many  successive  proofs 
of  how  enthusiasm  for  theory  completely  overshadowed 
the  statesm.anlike  anxiety  of  a  few  to  get  to  the  formula- 
tion of  such  law  as  might  bring  order  out  of  the  daily 
increasing  anarchy.  The  whole  assembly,  as  is  well 
known,  finally  adopted  a  Declaration  of  Rights  pre- 
sented by  Mirabeau,  in  the  name  of  the  sixth  bureau^* — 
a  declaration  which,  the  spokesman  said,  was  intended 
to  recall  to  the  people,  "  not  what  they  had  studied  in 
books,  nor  in  abstract  meditation,  but  what  they  them- 
selves had  felt,  so  that  it  *  *  *  might  rather  be 
the  language  which  they  would  use  had  they  the  habit 
of  expressing  their  ideas."^^ 

33  See  whole  speech  by  Crenidres,  in  Moniteur,  I,  pp.  259, 
260. 

34  The  first  committee  to  prepare  a  draft  of  the  declaration 
was  appointed  July  14,  1789;  it  was  not  until  August  26, 
1789,  that  the  final  draft  was  received  and  accepted. 

35  Many  other  reports  had  been  offered  and  the  strongly 
Kousseauist  character  of  the  Assembly  is  nowhere  better  evi- 


154       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

As  for  the  Deciaration  of  Eights  which  heads  the 
constitution  of  '93,  the  Convention  demanded  it,  be- 
cause of  the  "incoherence  and  inconsistency  of  the 
declaration  of  '89/'^^  The  plan  for  it,  drawn  up  by 
Herault  de  Sechelles,  who,  like  Mirabeau  and  the  Con- 
vention of  '89,  aimed  "  to  imitate  the  simplicity  and 
clearness  of  the  Americans,"^"^  was  read  amid  the  ap- 
plause of  the  Convention.  After  two  or  three  seasons 
for  discussion,  the  draft  was  adopted  with  little  altera- 
tion. The  marked  changes  from  the  declaration  of  '89 
will  appear  in  what  follows.  The  general  difference 
lies  in  a  greater  directness  of  style  and  a  greater  single- 
ness of  purpose.  The  idea  of  individual  right  comes 
forward  more  clearly.  Though  the  state  is  less  ac- 
cented, its  powers  and  duties  are  larger  and  more  in- 
clusive than  in  the  earlier  document.  There  is,  too,  a 
tendency  to  break  over  national  borders  and  to  proclaim 
a  world  polity  rather  than  one  merely  national. 

All  this  makes  it  clear  that,  though  there  was  a  vig- 
orous protest  against  the  intrusion  of  the  abstract  into 
positive  law,  metaphysical  thought  and  phraseology 
had  come  to  be  a  predominant  part  of  the  general 
sentiment.  The  majority  held  it  to  be  of  first  im- 
portance to  legalize  the  new  creed  of  individual  right. 

deneed  than  in  some  of  them.  See  especially  those  of  Lafay- 
ette, Sieyes,  Mounier  and  the  declaration  presented  by  Ser- 
van  (Moniteur,  I,  p.  243),  which  read  like  abstracts  from 
the  "Contrat  Social." 

36  See  Barere's  speech,  in  which  he  says  the  declaration  of 
'89,  "  a  le  merite  bien  reconnu  d'etre  concise ;  mais  aussi  elle 
a  le  vice  ggalement  reconnu  d'etre  incoherente "  (Choix  de 
Rapports,  XII,  p.  286). 

37  Moniteur,  XVII,  p.  728.     Stance  June  26,  1793. 


RIGHT  TO  LIBERTY.  ^55 

For  this  reason,  the  Eights  of  Man  found  their  way 
into  the  positive  law  of  France  as  portentous  preface 
to  the  constitution  of  ^91  and  that  of  '93.  In  these 
two  declarations,  and  in  each  additional  testimony  as 
is  furnished  by  the  Cahiers  of  the  States-General,  and 
the  debates,  which  in  the  Assembly  and  at  the  Jacobin 
Club,  made  these  questions  their  chief  concern,  the 
revolutionary  opinions  concerning  these  rights  can  be 
gathered. 

The  chief  interest  of  the  eighteenth  century,  as  has 
been  seen,  was  to  prove  the  freedom  of  the  individ- 
ual, to  break  the  shackles  which  bound  the  physical, 
and,  more  particularly,  the  intellectual  man.  The  first, 
most  important  of  rights,  was  liberty.  N'o  more  bar- 
riers to  progress,  no  more  check  upon  religious  or  secu- 
lar opinion;  civil,  political,  religious  liberty  was  the 
single  aim  to  which  all  others  were  accessory;  all  ac- 
tion of  government  should  be  in  the  end  of  making  the 
sanctity  of  the  sphere  of  the  individual,  certain  and 
complete. 

This  is  particularly  the  spirit  of  the  first  half  of  the 
Revolution.  The  Constituent  Assembly  has  often  been 
called  a  gathering  of  men  liberty-mad,  so  entirely  did 
the  accent  fall  upon  this  individual  right;  but  though 
the  succeeding  years  saw  the  sphere  of  the  individual 
narrowed  because  of  a  more  pronounced  idea  of  the 
greater  claim  of  collective  well-being,  as  against  individ- 
ual well-being,  the  theoretical  idea  of  liberty  changed 
less  during  the  Eevolution  than  did  the  idea  concern- 
ing any  other  right.  From  the  beginning,  liberty  was 
held  to  be  the  power  which  belongs  to  man  to  do  all 


156        PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

that  which  does  not  injure  the  rights  of  others.^^  Later, 
the  same  idea  gets  an  important  addition.  Though 
Nature,  it  is  said,  is  the  principle  of  liberty,  yet  justice 
is  its  rule,  and  law  is  made  in  order  to  protect  the  lib- 
erty of  all ;  the  maxim,  ^'  do  not  do  to  another  that 
which  you  would  not  wish  him  to  do  to  you,"  is  the 
moral  limitation  of  the  right  of  liberty.^^  Here  is 
a  notable  alteration  which  makes  all  liberty  referable 
to  that  of  others  in  a  sense  which  asks  for  a  fraternal 
spirit  of  self-denial.  Of  course,  all  parties  alike  held 
liberty  to  be  a  "  natural  right."  "  The  law,"  it  was 
said,  "  is  not  a  master  who  accords  his  benefits  gratui- 
tously; of  itself,  liberty  embraces  all  that  which  docs 
not  belong  to  others;  the  law  is  only  there  to  prevent  it 
from  losing  its  way;  it  is  only  a  protective  institution 
formed  by  the  same  liberty  which  is  anterior  to  all,  and 
for  which  all  in  the  social  order  exists."^  But  the 
law  must  "prevent  it  from  losing  its  way."  In  asso- 
ciation, "liberty  supposes  discipline,"*^  and  each  un- 
der the  social  contract  loses  a  certain  liberty  by  his  vol- 
untary act.  With  only  this  reservation,  that  the  law 
must  "mark  in  the  natural  free  actions  of  each  indi- 
vidual the  point  beyond  which  they  (these  actions)  be- 
come hurtful  to  the  rights  of  others,"*^  all  men  were 
held  to  be  always  free. 

Freedom  of  person  was  to  be  insured  first.     No  man 
might  deprive  himself,  much  less  be  deprived,  of  his 

38  Art.  4,  Declaration  of  '89;  art.  6,  Declaration  of  '93. 

39  See  art.  6,  Declaration  of  '93. 

40  SiSyes  in  speech  on  the  liberty  of  the  press.     Choix  de 
Rapports,  II,  pp.  351  et  seq. 

41  Mirabeau.     Moniteur,  I,  p.  42. 
42Si6yes.     Choix  de  Rapports,  II,  p.  352. 


RIGHT  TO  LIBERTY.  257 

personal  freedom;*^  this  was  mandatory.  Liberty  to 
come  and  go,  freedom  from  arrest,  except  for  a  stated 
cause  expressed  by  a  law  previously  made;*^  the  right 
to  assemble  peaceably^^  and  to  employ  one's  labor  power 
in  whatsoever  form  of  labor,  commerce  or  culture  was 
considered  desirable;*^  these  were  so  many  corollaries 
to  the  original  propositions  that  liberty  was  a  primeval 
right  of  man,  and  that  the  conservation  of  this  liberty 
of  action  was  a  necessity  for  the  development  and  well- 
being  of  social  man. 

Following  on  the  liberty  of  act  was  the  liberty  of 
thought,  "  the  most  sacred  of  all  rights,"  a  right  which 
*'  escapes  the  empire  of  men."^"^  Each  of  those  par- 
ticular rights  which  sum  up  under  the  general  head  of 
liberty  of  thought,  that  is,  the  right  to  express  one's 
opinion  as  one  may  desire,  whether  by  spoken  or  written 
words,  whether  publicly  or  privately;  the  liberty  to  wor- 
ship whatever  God  in  whatever  manner  one  pleased; 
each  of  these  rights  was  striven  for  as  resolutely  in  the 
Assembly  as  in  the  Convention.  But,  in  1789,  they 
are  laid  down  with  qualifications;  they  are  absolutely 
guaranteed  in  the  Declaration  of  '93.*®  "  I  do  not  come 
to  preach  tolerance,"  says  Mirabeau,  in  the  Constituent 
Assembly;*^  'Hhe  most  unlimited  liberty  of  religion  is 
in  my  eyes  a  right  so  sacred  that  the  word  tolerance, 

43  Art.  18,  Dec.  of  '93. 

44  Ibid,  arts.  10,  11,  12  and  14. 

45  Ibid,  art.  7. 

46  Ibid,  art.  17. 

47Rabaud  de  St.  Etienne.  Choix  de  Rapports,  I,  pp.  241 
et  seq. 

48  Dec.  of  '93,  art.  7. 

49  Choix  de  Rapports,  I,  p.  238. 


158       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

which  would  wish  to  express  it,  seems  to  me  in  some 
sort  itself  tyrannical,  since  the  existence  of  authority 
which  has  the  power  to  tolerate,  menaces  liberty  of 
thought  just  in  this,  that  it  tolerates,  and  that  thus  it 
might  not  tolerate."  In  Mirabeau's  idea, —  and  in  the 
Assembly,  his  was  the  controlling  one, —  the  law  should 
be  absolutely  silent  with  regard  to  religion.  Eulings 
concerning  man's  relation  with  God  had  no  place  among 
the  laws  of  men.  "As  well,"  he  cried,  "  decree  that 
the  sun  was  the  only  sun  which  they  would  accept  for 
light  as  decree  that  the  Catholic  religion  was  the  law 
of  the  land."-'^^  This  was  the  characteristic  attitude  of 
all  the  leaders  of  the  Eevolution  up  to  the  period  when 
tyranny,  in  order  to  liberty,  became  the  unfortunate 
practice.  Equally  unqualified  are  the  arguments  in  fa- 
vor of  liberty  of  the  press.  "  The  public  expresses  it- 
self badly,"  says  Sieyes,  "  when  it  asks  for  a  law  to  give 
freedom  of  the  press.  It  is  not  in  virtue  of  the  law 
that  the  citizens  think,  speak,  write  and  publish  their 
thoughts;  it  is  in  virtue  of  their  natural  rights  which 
men  brought  into  the  association,  and  for  the  main- 
tenance of  which  they  have  established  the  law  itself 
and  all  the  public  methods  which  serve  them."'^^ 
"  There  is  no  law,"  says  another,  "  to  be  made  on  the 
liberty  of  the  press ;  this  means  of  communicating  one's 
thought  can  no  more  be  enchained  than  the  thought 
itself."^^  Even  when  the  Convention  framed  the  de- 
crees which  punished  the  writing  of  seditions  pamphlets 
with  death,  the  debates  which  prefaced  these  decrees 

50  Choix  de  Rapports,  Vol.  I,  p.  238  et  seq. 

51  Choix  de  Rapports,  II,  p.  251. 

52  Speech  of  Chapelier.     Choix  de  Rapports,  V,  p.  219. 


RIQMT  TO  LIBERTY.  ^^59 

were  so  many  glowing  tributes  to  the  eternal  and  in- 
alienable liberty  of  the  press.^^ 

To  sum  up,  in  the  earlier  period,  it  was  held  that  so- 
ciety should  have  no  direct  share  in  looking  after  the 
individual  interest,  nor  in  shaping  the  morality  of  the 
nation.  The  regulation  of  his  private  tastes  and  occu- 
pations, and  the  practice  of  his  religion  was  to  be  left 
entirely  to  each  individual.  The  duty  of  society  was 
to  protect  all  individuals  and  all  cults  equally.  Lib- 
erty of  person  and  of  thought  was  to  be  reserved  by  the 
law  to  each  member  of  society,  with  only  the  limita- 
tion respecting  the  same  rights  in  others.  But  pas- 
sionate as  was  the  love  for  liberty  and  the  desire  for 
personal  freedom  during  the  Eevolution,  the  principle 
that  the  well-being  of  the  whole  social  body  took  prece- 
dence of  the  individual  well-being,  gradually  got  the 
upper  hand.  Even  in  theory,  the  idea  of  liberty  for 
each  went  swiftly  to  the  wall  after  '91,  as  against  the 
struggle  for  a  certain  kind  of  liberty  for  all.  After 
'92,  only  one  part  of  the  individual  natural  right  re- 
mained in  full  possession  to  each  individual.  The 
right  of  each  to  express  his  will  in  the  affairs  of  the 
nation,  a  right  affirmed,  but  not  granted,  in  '89,  and 
both  affirmed  and  granted  in  '93,  remains  a  natural  and 
inalienable  right,  though  in  practice,  at  least,  that  also 
disappears  after  '93.  However,  it  was  in  the  name  of  the 
theory  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  nation  that  individual 
rights  were  overshadowed  and  a  tyranny  was  finally  set 
up,  than  which  modern  history  tells  of  few  greater. 

53  In  Choix  de  Rapports,  Vol.  XI,  pp.  303,  304,  the  reader 
will  find  interestin*T  evidence  of  how  far  these  Conventionnels 
were  checked  by  their  own  theories  when  those  who  attacked 
them  were  to  be  dealt  with. 


1^0       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  PEVOLUTtOI^, 

The  enthusiasm  for  the  idea  of  liberty  had  only 
slight  precedence  over  the  enthusiasm  for  that  of 
equality.^^  Even  before  the  two  higher  Estates  had 
yielded  to  the  Third  and  the  Constituent  Assembly 
had  been  actually  organized,  these  two  rights,  now  so 
intimately  associated  with  the  Revolution,  were  de- 
manded together,  as  the  imperative  need  of  the  time.^*^ 
It  is  a  prevailing  thought  that  "  liberty  and  equality  are 
the  supreme  possession"  of  the  French  people,  that 
equality  must  be  "  the  base  of  the  Constitution.'"^ 

Equality  is  a  broad  term,  and  carries  with  it  different 
concepts,  according  to  the  development  of  the  man  who 
uses  it.  As  a  principle  of  government,  it  has  covered 
all  manner  of  ideals.  On  the  one  hand,  those  who 
preach  equality  have  in  view  carefully  supervised  com- 
munities where  groups  of  men  are  to  be  brought  up 
to  eat,  dress,  act  and  think  alike,  using  unequal  pow- 
ers for  the  single  end  of  the  general  well-being,  and 
taking  no  special  account  of  personal  enjoyment;  on 
the  other  hand,  there  is  that  conception  of  equality 
which  interprets  the  word  to  mean  equal  freedom  from 
impediments  in  a  race  where  the  spoils  shall  be  to  the 
nimblest. 

During  the  first  part  of  the  Eevolution,  the  claims 
for  equality  were  really  put  forward  under  the  influence 
of  this  latter,  the  physiocratic,  idea  of  equality.     Mere 

54  La  liberty  et  I'^galite  sont  leurs  biens  supr§mes;  il  sac- 
rifieront  tout  pour  les  conserver.  Roland.  Stance  of  Septem- 
ber 23,  1793.    Choix  de  Rapports,  X,  p.  24. 

55  See,  in  particular,  Mirabeau's  famous  speech  of  June  15, 
1789,  in  Moniteur,  I,  p.  351. 

56  Speech  of  Charles  de  Lameth,  June  19,  1790.  Choix 
de  Rapports,  II,  p.  115. 


RIGHT  TO  EQUALITY.  1^1 

liberty  of  opportunity,  the  principle  of  laissez-faire, 
was  all  the  equality  asked  or  desired.  Mirabeau  slur- 
ringly  spoke  of  any  other  idea  of  equality  as  "  only 
a  violent  fit  of  revolutionary  fever/'^*^  which,  because 
of  the  inborn  vanity  of  man,  could  not  endure.  Each 
speech  of  the  early  days  in  the  Assembly  begins  and 
ends  with  the  claim  for  every  man's  right  to  an  equal 
chance  in  the  struggle  for  existence;  that  is,  for  the 
right  to  equal  legislation,  and  equal  territorial  rights 
in  each  administrative  unit  in  the  kingdom,  as  well  as 
for  the  abolition  of  all  special  privilege.*^®  It  was 
usually  asserted  that  this  sort  of  equality  was  dependent 
upon  an  equal  protection  of  each  individual  by  the  state, 
and  could  only  be  insured  by  laws  alike  for  all.^^  The 
successive  assemblies  delegated  to  make  the  laws  con- 
cerning "  the  establishment,  the  formation,  the  organ- 
ization, the  functions,  the  mode  of  acting,  the  limits  of 
all  social  power,"®^  aimed  first  of  all  at  securing  liberty 
and  equality  to  the  nation;  they  strove  valiantly  to- 
ward equality  by  abolishing  all  heredity  in  office,  or  all 
long  tenure  of  office,  on  the  ground  which  later  ex- 
perience has  shown  to  be  so  debatable — the  ground  that 
no  man  was  specially  endowed  to  serve  his  country, 
but  that  all  were  equally  able  to  conduct  the  simple  du- 
ties of  government.  The  same  theory,  of  course,  was 
behind  the  law  making  which  decreed  that  each  citizen 
was  eligible  to  any  place  under  the  government.     All 

57  Correspondence  with  La  Marck,  I,  p.  351. 

58  See  speech  on  Due  d'Aiguiilon,  Moniteur,  Vol.  I,  p.  279. 
ce  Blanc,  op.  cit..  Ill,  p.  407. 

00  Condorcet  in  report  on  the  projected  Constitution  of  *93, 
one  of  the  most  political  speeches  of  the  Revolution.     Cholx 
de  Rapports,  XII,  p.  279. 
11 


162       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

men  were  made  equal  before  the  common  law,  when 
feudal  privilege  was  destroyed  and  the  Church  reduced 
to  a  civil  institution;  when  the  contributions  for  the 
state  support  were  drawn  equally  from  all  men  and 
from  all  sections  of  the  country.  The  political  and  civil 
laws  of  the  Eevolution  had  always  in  view  the  pro- 
vincial, municipal  and  personal  equalization  of  the 
national  life. 

After  1791,  when  visionaries  held  the  reins  of  gov- 
ernment, and  the  lawmakers  were  in  such  desperate 
haste  to  realize  the  rational,  there  was  a  distinct  differ- 
ence in  the  interpretation  of  the  right  of  equality.  Al- 
though the  principle  is  couched  in  about  the  same  terms, 
although  equality  was  still  demanded,  in  order  that 
each  "  shall  enjoy  the  same  right s,"^^  in  reality  the  prin- 
ciple is  changed.  Equality  comes  to  be  a  doctrine  mak- 
ing for  the  leveling-down  of  all  to  a  certain  standard. 
The  notion  of  equality  now  takes  legal  form  as  a  de- 
mand for  the  support  of  the  poor  by  the  rich.  There 
are  distinct  governmental  efforts  to  bring  about  a  more 
equal  division  of  fortunes  by  making  the  superfluous 
useless  to  him  who  possesses  it,  or  by  turning  it  to  the 
advantage  of  him  who  is  without  it,  and  thus,  in  either 
case,  ordering  it  to  the  profit  of  society  at  large  .^^  The 
idea  of  equality  comes  to  take  precedence  of  the  idea 
of  liberty.      The   earlier  notion  was  absolute  liberty 

and  the  greatest  possible  equality;  the  later  doctrine  was 
« 

61  Dec.  of  April,  '93.    Choix  de  Rapports,  XII. 

62  See  Chronique  de  Paris  No.  19,  January,  1793.  (Cited  in 
Sudre.  Histoire  de  Communisme,  p.  258.)  Comp.  also 
Sagnae.  La  Legislation  Civile  de  la  Revolution  Francaise, 
especially  pp.  246-276. 


RIGHT  TO  EQUALITY.  r^^^ 

more  nearly  absolute  equality,  to  the  end  of  the  great- 
est possible  liberty.  The  dream  of  solving  for  all  time 
the  problem  of  alimentation  by  limiting  or  equalizing 
consumption,  all  to  the  end  of  bringing  about  social 
justice,  got  the  upper  hand,  and  the  doctrine  of  equality 
came  to  sound  like  something  very  near  to  communistic 
similarity. 

The  principle  of  equality,  then,  like  the  doctrine  of 
liberty,  changed  its  aspect  during  the  Eevolution.  Al- 
though it  is  the  individualistic  interpretation  of  equal- 
ity which  has  been  handed  on  with  most  persistence,  as 
having  been  a  principle  of  Eevolution,  the  communis- 
tic idea  of  equality  had  undoubted  currency  for  a  con- 
siderable period.  The  equality  which  in  later  French 
history  has  been  announced  as  the  "  revolutionary  prin- 
ciple of  equality,"  has  meant  equal  right  to  protection 
from  the  government,  and  otherwise  equal  freedom  to 
follow  where  individual  interests  might  lead;  but  under 
the  most  distinctive  period  of  the  Revolution,  equality 
meant  the  nearest  possible  approach  to  similarity  of 
possession,  of  habits  and  of  opportunities  for  culture 
and  enjoyment. 

Because  of  the  wholesale  appropriation  of  property 
which  went  on  during  its  course,  the  whole  revolution 
has  sometimes  been  called  a  socialistic  movement,  un- 
der the  interpretation  of  socialism  which  takes  the 
theory  to  include  all  social  movements  made  in  favor  of 
state  action  directed  toward  the  equalization  of  prop- 
erty-holding.^2     Whenever  modern    political    theorists 

63  See  e.  g.  Espinas  —  La  Philosophie  Sociale,  au  XVIII« 
si&cle  et  la  Revolution. 


164       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

SO  interpret  the  property  doctrine  of  the  Revolution, 
they  then  hold  that  the  revolutionary  theory  of  prop- 
erty-right started  with  the  idea  of  state  as  possessor. 
On  the  other  hand,  because  of  what  is  contained  in  both 
declarations  of  rights,  others  have  asserted  that  the 
principle  which  controlled  the  whole  revolutionary 
thinking  concerning  property  was  that  individualistic 
theory  which  holds  the  state  to  be  the  only  guarantor  of 
an  original  and  inalienable  natural  right.  Probably  it 
is  most  correct  to  say  that,  so  far  as  practice  was  con- 
cerned, the  principle  which  was  behind  the  acts  of  legis- 
lation was  what  has  been  recently  called  the  "  appro- 
priationist  "^  principle,  a  principle  by  which  one  "  ex- 
propriates first  and  then  apportions  again  to  the  best 
of  one's  ability."  Throughout  the  Revolution  the  idea 
was  not  so  much  to  discredit  the  right  of  individual 
land-holding  as  it  was  to  establish  the  state's  right  to 
regulate  the  character  of  that  holding. 

Two  currents  of  opinion  are  plainly  discernible  when 
account  is  taiven  of  those  principles  concerning  private 
holding  which  the  leaders  of  the  new  movement  laid 
down  in  the  course  of  the  frequent  debates  upon  ques- 
tions of  property  that  took  place  during  the  four  years 
under  discussion.  The  prevailing  opinions  group  under 
two  heads:  There  was  one  theory  which  contended 
that  property  was  a  right  anterior  to  society,  a  right 
resting   on   labor,   and   that   the   state   was   only   the 

64  E.  Faguet  in  La  Grande  Revue  for  May,  1899.  Art.  "  Le 
Socialisme  dans  la  Revolution  Frangaise,"  p.  371.  The  French 
verb  "  approprier,"  it  will  be  remembered,  means  to  apportion, 
requiring  the  reflexive  form  before  it  gets  our  meaning  of 
"  appropriate." 


RIGHT  TO  PROPERTY.  J^g5 

guardian  of  that  right;  there  was  another  which  re- 
garded personal  holdings  as  a  right  deriving  from  so- 
ciety. In  the  latter  view,  society  was  held  to  be  the 
depositary  of  all  rights,  and  thus,  by  the  terms  of 
an  original  arrangement,  had  always  the  final  power 
to  decide  upon  the  right  of  each  and  all  to  retain  per- 
sonal possession.  It  seems  to  have  been  pretty  gen- 
erally admitted  by  all  factions,  until  1791,  that  the 
natural  man  needed  property  in  order  to  fulfill  his  des- 
tiny of  earthly  happiness,  and,  in  the  interests  of  such 
a  need,  had  retained  that  right  on  entering  society. 
After  1791,  it  was  not  usual  to  hear  any  one  of  the 
leaders  urge  that  a  primitive  right  took  precedence  of 
a  social  claim  at  least  to  arbitrate  upon  all  property, 
but  the  idea  of  the  state  as  the  protector  of  all  personal 
property  had  preference  during  the  first  half  of  the 
Revolution.^ 

In  support  of  the  theory  of  absolute  individual  con- 
trol of  all  possessions,  it  was  contended  that  property 
rests  on  a  law  anterior  to  all  constitutions.  "  Each  en- 
ters into  the  social  compact,  bringing  with  him  his 
property,  and  the  protection  of  his  possessions  is  the 
sole  object  of  the  social  contract;  therefore,  it  is  sacred, 
unless  the  nation  should  dispose  of  it  for  the  general 
good,  and  in  return  for  a  just  and  preliminary  indem- 
nity.^'^^  All  those  who  stand  for  inviolability  of  prop- 
erty admit  this  final  qualifying  clause,^*^  but  men  of  all 

65  So  prominent  a  man  as  Mirabeau  was,  however,  a  dis- 
senter from  it. 

6fi  Lasource  in  the  Convention.     Moniteur,  XVI,  p.  7. 

67  See  the  debates  of  August  4,  1780  (Moniteur,  I,  pp. 
279  et  seq.),  and  other  debates  on  property  cited  elsewhere. 


IQQ        FKINCIFLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

factions,  Constitutionalists,  Monarchists,  Feuillants  and 
Girondists  agreed  that,  unless  the  right  deriving  from 
the  condition  antecedent  to  society  was  to  be  protected 
and  preserved  by  society,  the  right  should  not  be  sur- 
rendered. It  was  held  that  unless  the  individual  prop- 
erty-right was  respected,  "  liberty  itself  would  disap- 
pear *  *  *  industry  would  be  made  tributary  to 
stupidity,  activity  to  laziness,  economy  to  dissipation; 
over  the  laborious,  intelligent  and  economic  man,  the 
tyranny  of  ignorance,  idleness  and  debauchery  would 
be  set  up.'^^®  Even  opportunists  like  Danton^^  de^ 
manded  that  the  laws  should  declare  "all  properties, 
territorial,  individual  and  industrial,  eternally  invio- 
lable."'^^ Though  his  motion  received  the  applause  of 
the  majority,  it  was  criticised  by  Cambon,  who  reminded 
the  Assembly  that  property,  like  everything  else,  was 
subject  to  the  will  of  the  people.  Here  is  the  keynote 
of  the  other  theory  which  holds  property  to  be  a  social 
right,  not  one  inherent  in  the  individual. 

The  right  of  property,  as  deriving  from  the  consent 
of  the  whole  nation,  which  is  thus  made  the  original 
possessor,  was  the  theory  of  property  which,  surviving 
from  the  century  preceding,  chiefly  influenced  the 
thought  and  act  of  the  Kevolution.  The  most  interest- 
ing and  best-known  exponent  of  this  theory  is  Mirabeau, 
who,  it  is  well  known,  held  property  to  be  a  social,  not 

68Vergniaud  on  property,  cited  in  Sudre,  op.  cit.,  pp.  263, 
264. 

69  The  word  "  opportunist "  is  here  taken  to  mean  nothing 
derogatory.  It  implies  one  who  is  ready  to  use  any  means 
which  he  believes  will  bring  about  the  well-being  of  the  coun- 
try he  holds  dear. 

TOMoniteur,  XVI,  p.  7. 


BIGHT  TO  PROPERTY,  1^7 

a  natural  right,  and  the  proprietor  simply  a  govern- 
ment official.  ^^  I  know  but  three  ways  of  existing  in 
society,"  says  Mirabeau ;  "  one  must  be  beggar,  thief  or 
wage-earner  (salarie)."  The  proprietor  is  himself 
only  the  first  of  wage-earners;  that  which  is  vulgarly 
called  property  is  nothing  but  the  price  which  society 
pays  to  its  proprietors  for  the  distribution  which  he 
is  charged  to  make  to  the  other  individuals  by  his  con- 
sumption and  his  expenses.  '^  Les  proprietaires  sont 
les  agents,  les  economes  de  corps  social ;  ""^^  and  when 
circumstances  make  it  necessary  for  state  to  assert  this 
property-right,  proprietors  cannot  justly  deny  the  pre- 
eminent right  of  society  to  claim  its  own.  Mirabeau 
was  not  alone  in  this  opinion.  Not  so  often  in  the  con- 
ventions of  state,  perhaps,  but  in  all  the  club  reunions 
and  in  the  papers  and  pamphlets  of  the  time,  this  doc- 
trine finds  untiring  support.*^^  Sometimes,  it  goes 
along  with  the  suggestion  of  communism,*^^  but  no  one 
seriously  broached  the  idea  of  communistic  or  collect- 
ivist  property-holding."^*     It  is  true  that,  pursuant  to 

71  See  the  whole  very  suggestive  speech  in  stance  of  August 
10,  1789.  Moniteur,  I,  p.  327;  comp.  also  his  speech  on 
succession  in  direct  line,  "  la  society  qui  avait  cr6e  le  droit 
de  propri^te,  pouvait  ii  son  gr6  lui  limiter."  (Comp.  also  Tron- 
chet  and  Camus;  speeches  on  occasion  of  debates  on  the  in- 
heritance laws,  April,   1791.) 

72  Comp.  Robespierre  on  property,  Moniteur,  XVI,  p.  213. 
Dubois  de  Craned,  discours,  February,  1793  (cited  in  Lichten- 
berger,  Le  Socialisme  et  la  Revolution  Frangaise,  p.  117); 
also  the  major  part  of  the  speeches  of  Chabot,  Billaud-Varen- 
nes,  Fauchet.  The  most  important  debates  on  property  were 
those  of  August  4,  1789,  and  the  day  or  two  succeeding;  the 
month  of  August,  1790;  the  3-6  of  July,  1791,  and  August 
14,  1792. 

73  As,  for  instance  in  the  doctrines  of  Pere  Duchesne  and 
Claude  Fauchet. 

74  Communistic  ideals  had  no  real  force  in  the  Revolution. 


IQQ        PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

this  right,  it  was  considered  the  duty  of  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  sovereign  to  decide  whether  in  the  last 
resort  an  individual  was  entitled  to  possess  property/'^ 
and  also  to  determine  what  amount  each  should  pos- 
sessJ^  Thus  property  might  be  appropriated  on 
grounds  of  crimes  against  the  sovereign  people;  the 
popular  will  should  assert  itself,  on  the  question 
of  how  much  a  man  might  bequeath  to  his  heirs 
and  what  part  the  amount  of  his  property  should  play 
in  determining  his  share  of  the  contribution  to  state 
support.  The  corollaries  of  the  principle  of  the  state's 
final  right  to  property  were  thus  laws  of  confiscation  — 
laws  limiting  the  size  of  fortunes,  inheritance  laws,  and 
a  progressive  tax.  But  however  much  such  laws  may 
smack  of  communistic  or  socialistic  theories,  they  did 
not  result  in  a  social  system  which  resembled  any  type 
of  socialistic  society;  not  even  when  the  idea  behind 
such  interference  with  the  personal  right  was  the  con- 

Although  the  Convention  listened  with  attention  to  a  discourse 
(Carra.  Seance  of  25  February,  '93.  Choix  de  Rapports,  XI, 
p.  304  et  seq. )  in  which  the  question  of  appropriating  for- 
tunes gained  in  an  illicit  fashion  was  discussed,  and  it  was 
pleaded  that  such  appropriation  be  decreed,  because  "  partout 
oil  le  peuple  retrouve  son  bien,  il  a  le  droit  de  le  prendre; 
c'est  un  axiome  incontestable,  non  seulement  de  sa  sou- 
verainete,  mais  de  la  justice,  de  la  raison  et  de  la  politique 
universelle,"  the  motion  was  rejected  as  tending  to  encour- 
age a  popular  expectation  of  an  agrarian  law.  On  motion  of 
Barere,  arch  time-server,  the  Convention  voted  "  la  peine  de 
mort  contre  quiconque  proposera  une  loi  agraire  ou  toute 
autre,  subversive  des  proprieties  territoriales,  commerciales 
et  industrielles/'      (Choix  de  Rapports,  XI,  p.  318.) 

75  See  laws  on  conJS.scation  of  goods  of  the  aristocrats  e.  g. 
in  act  establishing  Revolutionary  Tribun:il,  Choix  de  Rap- 
ports, XII. 

76  See  laws  on  limitatioBi  of  large  fortune,  Sagnac,  op.  cit., 
pp.  217-243, 


RIOBT  TO  PROPERTY.  169 

ception  of  state  as  rightful  possessor  of  all  the  sources 
and  means  of  production. 

The  reason  for  this  is  important  and  not  far  to  seek. 
The  root  principle  behind  either  idea  of  property  was 
one  entirely  individualistic.  It  was  believed,  that  in 
order  to  fulfill  the  end  for  which  the  greater  number 
had  been  given  the  controlling  power,  that  is,  in  order 
to  best  further  the  common  happiness  by  means  of  in- 
dividual freedom,  the  state  must  proceed  by  way  of 
the  segregation,  not  the  aggregation,  of  possessions. 
The  social  duty,  from  which  the  social  right  over  prop- 
erty derived,  was  the  equitable  division  of  property,  in 
order  to  insure  his  share  of  happiness  to  each  member 
of  society.  Even  when  it  was  held  that  the  state  had 
the  right  to  take  away  from  one  citizen,  it  was  only 
desired  that  it  should  do  so  in  order  that  it  might  carry 
out  completely  its  service  of  giving  to  another  who  was 
more  deserving  of  possession.  In  all  cases,  the  ideal 
was  only  state  control  of  the  partition  of  property,  not 
state  ownership  of  property.  If  the  sovereign  seques- 
trated, whether  on  the  grounds  of  being  the  real  pos- 
sessor, as  was  sometimes  urged,  or  on  the  grounds  of 
social  utility,  it  was  not  in  order  to  retain  control  of 
the  property,  but  in  order  to  an  immediate  redistribu- 
tion on  a  basis  which  it  conceived  to  be  more  nearly  in 
consonance  with  those  principles  of  freedom  and  equity 
that  it  had  been  created  to  preserve.  During  the  Revo- 
lution, this  theory  that  the  state  finally  controlled  prop- 
erty expressed  itself  in  a  minute  partition  of  the  land, 
because  it  went  along  with,  and  was  in  a  sense  sec- 
ondary to,  a  theory  that  the  individual  was,  by  natural 


170        PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

law,  free,  and  was  best  left  free  to  seek  the  satisfac- 
tion of  his  own  wants  for  himself.  The  whole  aim  of 
the  Revolution  was  a  new  distribution  of  political 
power;  the  new  distribution  of  property  came  in  the 
minds  of  the  revolutionary  parties  merely  as  a  neces- 
sary measure  in  the  course  of  such  a  repartition  of  the 
government  control.  When  the  power  of  the  Church 
was  to  be  diminished;  when  the  defection  of  the  nobles 
was  to  be  punished  and  the  ecclesiastical  and  manorial 
properties  were  expropriated  by  the  state,  the  grounds 
of  such  confiscation  were  oftenest  that  it  was  the  state 
duty  to  appropriate  property  wherever  the  individual 
had  failed  in  his  duty  to  the  state.  The  estates  of 
the  guilds,  of  the  suspects,  of  persons  condemned  to 
the  death  penalty,  these  and  any  of  the  quasi-public  or 
private  domains  which  were  eventually  alienated,  were 
always  adjudged  to  the  state  on  grounds  of  public  util- 
ity, whether  state  right  or  state  duty  was  the  final 
argument  which  sanctioned  the  appropriation. 

To  sum  up,  the  theory  of  property  current  during 
the  Eevolution  shows  an  interesting  separation  of 
opinion  as  to  the  right  of  property.  Along  with  the 
doctrine  of  the  sacredness  and  inviolability  of  individ- 
ual property  on  grounds  of  a  natural  right,  deriving 
from  labor,  it  gave  conspicuous  importance  to  the  prin- 
ciple that  the  final  and  real  proprietor  was  always  the 
state.  Both  parties  were,  however,  so  influenced  by  a 
belief  in  the  intimate  connection  between  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  and  his  inherent  right  to  seek 
and  hold  any  means  he  deemed  most  needful  for  his 
personal  happiness,  that  there  was  no  tendency  to  talk 


RIGHT  TO  PROPERTY.  j^^j^ 

of  state  ownership  of  land.  In  regard  to  property,  the 
principle  which  emerges  most  positively  from  the  Revo- 
lution is  the  idea  of  the  state  as  arbiter  concerning  all 
questions  of  property.  State  appropriations  were  al- 
ways made  on  grounds  of  social  utility,  whether  in  the 
name  of  a  state  right  or  a  state  duty.  Whenever  such 
appropriations  were  made,  the  public  necessity  was  al- 
ways urged,  in  accordance  with  the  requirements  of 
the  articles  of  both  declarations,'^'''  even  when  the  "  in- 
demnity "  they  also  provided  for  was  not  forthcoming. 
The  ideas  of  prope'rty  prevailing  during  the  Eevolution 
may  be  said  to  have  focused;  not  so  much  to  a  unity  of 
opinion  concerning  the  source  of  the  right  of  property, 
but  rather  to  a  uniformity  of  opinion  which  served 
greatly  to  widen  the  sphere  of  state  activity. 

One  important  general  fact  derives  from  this  review 
of  the  revolutionary  opinion  concerning  natural  rights. 
It  must  have  been  observed  that,  whether  in  regard  to 
the  physical  or  mental  freedom  of  the  individual,  hia 
social  status,  or  his  property,  always  the  revolutionary 
tendency  was  to  accent  increasingly  the  state's  right 
to  arbitrate  concerning  the  share  of  each  individual  in 
such  rights.  While  it  is  never  to  be  forgotten  that,  in 
the  eyes  of  the  revolutionists,  social  institutions  were 
only  conceived  to  exist  for  the  sake  of  the  individual, 
just  because  the  individual  interests  were  held  to  need 
social  institutions,  this  problem  of  the  state  and  its  du- 
ties grew  to  be  of  increasing  importance.  The  whole 
political  problem  really  resolved  finally  into  this  one  of 

77  Declaration  of  '89,  art.  XVII;  Declaration  of  '93,  arte. 
XVI  and  XIX. 


1^2        PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

finding  an  answer  for  tlie  question  as  to  what  were  the 
powers  and  duties  of  the  state.  Here,  as  at  later 
periods,  the  question  was,  how  far  collective  action  must 
aid  moral  and  physical  well-being;  in  a  word,  what  was 
the  relation  of  the  state  to  the  individual?  To  find 
the  reply  which  the  Eevolution  gave  to  this  question  is 
to  find  the  revolutionary  answer  to  the  pivotal  political 
problem  of  that  or  any  time.  In  this  summary  state- 
ment of  the  revolutionary  principles,  it  remains  then 
to  discuss  the  position  of  the  revolutionists  on  two 
fundamental  political  principles.  It  must  be  clearly 
understood  what  the  state,  or  sovereign,  was  conceived 
to  be,  and  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  relation  of  the 
sovereign  to  each  individual  in  the  nation.  The  least 
skilled  of  political  theorists  who  remembers  that  the 
spirit  of  '93  was  one  of  logical  completeness,  can  work 
out  the  Constitution  of  '93,  if  the  revolutionary  idea 
of  sovereignty  and  of  relation  between  tke  state  and 
the  individual  is  made  clear. 

IV. 

Under  the  influence  of  the  prevailing  moral  and 
social  ideas,  the  theory  concerning  the  source  of  politi- 
cal power  took  an  entirely  new  aspect  during  the  Eevo- 
lution. A  political  philosophy  that  had  grown  in  gen- 
eral favor  was  now  applied  to  practical  politics.  The 
sovereignty  which  had  been  so  long  held  to  be  vested 
in  one  person,  whose  power,  derived  from  a  providential 
source,  now  became  the  whole  nation  whose  right 
could  be  traced  to  the  will  of  man.  The  revolutionary 
doctrine  replaced  the  absolute  monarchy  by  the  absQ- 


^OVERElGNff,  lY^ 

lute  majority.  Supreme  political  power  was  now  given 
as  unreservedly  to  the  Nation  as  it  had  formerly  been 
given  to  a  single  man J^  "  Sovereignty  resides  in  the 
people/'  says  the  declaration  of  '93;^^  "it  is  one,  in- 
divisible, imprescriptible  and  inalienable/'  and  this 
theory,  stated  plainly  in  the  previous  declaration,  and 
held  to  be  axiomatic  in  the  Cahiers,  has  been  the  most 
lasting  dogma  which  the  Revolution  has  bequeathed  to 
later  political  theory. 

It  was,  of  course,  the  theory  of  the  social  contract 
by  which  it  was  proven  that  the  general  will  was  to 
control  the  particular  will.^  Rousseau's  contention 
that  the  original  voluntary  contract  had  finally  given 
the  ultimate  right  of  decision  to  the  majority,  reap- 
pears without  reservation.  "  A  first,  unanimous  con- 
sent, founded  upon  the  evidence  of  an  absolute  neces- 
sity, submits  the  minority  of  the  citizens  to  the  desires 
of  the  majority,  and  the  will  of  the  greatest  number 
becomes  really  the  will  of  all."^^  "  Each  part  of  so- 
ciety is  subject;  the  sovereignty  resides  only  in  all 
parts  united,"  says  a  man  so  conservative  as  Lally-Tol- 
lendal.^^  There  is  practically  no  dissent  from  the  as- 
sertion that  since,  by  Natural  Law,  power  derives  from 

78  Comp.  Robespierre's  demand  for  universal  suffrage,  Aug. 
9,  1792,  cited  in  Blanc,  La  Revolution  frangaise,  VII,  p.  36. 

79  Art.  25;  comp.  also  art.  1,  Dec.  of  '89. 

80 "  Toute  esp^ce  de  puissance  individuelle  qui  tendrait  ft 
restreindre  les  droits  du  peuple  et  blesserait  les  principles  de 
I'egalite "  are  to  be  condemned.  "  Jurons  tous  la  souve- 
rain#t4  du  peuple,  sa  souverain§t6  enti^re ".  (Couthon  on 
duty  of  Convention.     Moniteur,  XIV,  p.  6.) 

81  Condorcet.  Stance  of  Aug.  9,  1792.  Choix  de  Rapports, 
IX,  p.  281. 

82  Moniteur,  I,  p.  132.  Comp.  also  almost  any  one  of 
Robespierre's  speeches;  for  e.  g.  that  on  the  abolition  of  capi- 


174       PRINCIPLES  OP  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

the  consent  of  the  greater  part  of  those  persons  who 
entered  into  a  social  relation,  it  necessarily  follows  that 
absolutely  free  and  equal  share  in  the  law  making  and 
the  law-administering  belongs  to  each  member  of  the 
social  body,  for  it  is  only  in  this  way  that  the  social 
man  can  remain  his  own  master.  Social  happiness  was 
held  to  depend  upon  the  universal  recognition  of  this 
principle  that  the  law,  "  a  just  and  useful  intention  ex- 
pressed by  a  supreme  will,"®^  should  be  always  the 
"  free  and  solemn  expression  of  the  general  will.'^^ 

Eight  of  resistance,  which  played  such  a  noteworthy 
part  in  the  revolutionary  theory,  means  nothing  more 
than  the  right  to  insist  upon  and  to  preserve  this  in- 
terpretation of  sovereignty.  The  much-vaunted  right 
of  resistance  was  only  the  sanction  to  the  theory  of 
popular  sovereignty.  Any  attempt  to  alter  the  prin- 
ciple which  vested  social  control  in  the  general  will 
was  to  be  regarded  as  a  betrayal  of  the  terms  of  asso- 
ciation. Whosoever,  by  an  attempt  to  make  his  indi- 
vidual will  the  controlling  will,  dared  to  menace  the 
principle  of  popular  sovereignty,  merited  immediate 
death  at  the  hands  of  the  general  association.^  For  it 
was  contended  that  the  association  not  only  bound  itself 

tal  punishment:  comp.  Vergniaud,  Moniteur,  Vol.  XV,  p.  11. 
Stance  of  Dec.  31st,  1791. 

83  Malouet.    Moniteur,  I,  p.  77. 

84  First  clause  of  art.  4,  Dec.  of  '93 ;  comp.  also  Boyer- 
Fonfrede,  "  J'ai  le  coeur  trop  haat;  j'ai  Fame  trop  fidre  pour 
reconnaltre  d'autre  souveraine  que  le  peuple."  Choix  de  Rap- 
ports, XXII,  p.  18. 

85  See  Vergniaud.  Speech  on  the  Emigres,  Oct.  26,  1791. 
"Je  consens  d'etre  puni  de  mort  si  j'attente  a  la  votre" 
(sur§t6).  Comp.  also  speech  of  St.  Just  on  the  Constitution 
of  '93.    Choix  de  Rapports,  XII,  pp.  269  et  seq. 


to  permit  each  person  to  exercise  his  will  as  much  as 
was  compatible  with  the  freedom  of  the  other  members 
of  the  nation;  it  likewise  contracted  to  protect  the 
right  of  all  against  the  possible  encroachment  of  each. 
Every  member  of  the  association  had  the  right  of  insur- 
rection if  the  association  failed  to  perform  this  service. 
The  doctrine  meant  not  so  much  right  of  resistance  to 
the  popular  will  as  a  right  to  resist  the  illegal  acts  of 
the  organs  of  that  will.  When  this  right  of  resistance 
was  said  to  be  the  most  sacred  of  all  rights,^  what  wag 
meant  was  resistance  to  incursions  upon  the  right  of 
the  sovereign  people,  not  resistance  to  that  final  sover- 
eignty. Where  there  was  oppression  of  a  single  mem- 
ber such  that  the  sovereignty  of  all  was  threatened,  re- 
sistance became  at  once  a  right  and  a  duty.^*^ 

It  is  interesting,  if  a  little  beside  the  point,  to  note 
how  this  interpretation  of  sovereignty  finally  got  ex- 
pression in  the  fundamental  law.  When  the  question 
of  committing  political  powers  into  the  hands  of  dep- 
uties came  up  for  discussion,  it  was  generally  agreed 
that  as  little  power  as  possible  must  be  unreservedly 
delegated,  lest  the  servant  become  the  master.  ItTot 
only  were  the  most  limited  powers  to  be  intrusted  to  a 
portion  of  the  nation,  but  also,  whatever  power  was 
delegated,  was  to  be  divided  as  little  as  might  be.  By 
'93  there  was  no  more  of  that  enthusiastic  support  of 
the  principle  of  the  separation  of  powers  which  had 
been  one  of  the  pet  theories  in  '89.    In  place  of  the  Con- 

86  Dec.  of  '93,  arts.  33,  34  and  36. 

87Comp.  Robespierre's  speech  (Moniteur,  I,  p.  182). 
**  Y-a-t  il  rien  de  plus  legitime  que  de  se  soulever  centre 
une  conjuration  horrible  form^e  pour  perdre  la  nation?" 


176       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

stitutionalists  and  Feuillants,  who  put  so  much  stress 
upon  the  principle;  instead  of  Mirabeau  defending 
"  cette  grande  locution  des  trois  pouvoirs,"^^  and  a 
majority  eagerly  advocating  a  separate  executive,  legis- 
lative and  judiciary,  as  the  "  powers  which  concur  in 
the  establishment  of  the  society,"^^  there  is  an  entirely 
different  point  of  view.  In  ^89,  the  Declaration  of 
Eights  consecrated  the  separation  of  powers  as  the  sole 
valid  guarantee  of  individual  rights.^^  In  the  Conven- 
tion, the  majority  went  with  Ducos,  who  called  the  no- 
tion of  the  distribution  of  powers  "  that  chimera  accred- 
ited by  the  example  of  England,  and  by  the  authority  of 
several  writers  otherwise  very  estimable/'^^  It  was 
held  that  a  true  democracy  did  not  divide  power;  it 
chose  a  few  representatives  to  plan  and  to  act  for  it, 
and  reserved  for  itself  all  rights  of  final  decision.  The 
desire  to  have  the  active  consent  of  the  whole  people  in 
all  matters  of  law  making,  led  the  Jacobins  to  draw 
up  a  constitution  which  it  is  permissible  to  believe  could 
never  have  been  worked.  But  that  constitution^^  re- 
mains as  the  proof  of  the  political  ideal  of  the 
Revolution.  The  constitution  provided  for  man- 
hood suffrage  and  for  the  most  democratic  principle  of 
representation;^^  arranged  for  an  obligatory  referen- 

88  Moniteur,  I,  p.  76. 

89  De  Virieu.  Choix  de  Rapports,  I,  p.  62;  comp.  also 
Vergniaud  (seance  Dec  30,  1793),  who  declaims  against 
"  cette  cumulation  de  pouvoirs  *  ♦  *  est  si  eff  rayante 
que  *  *  *  si  elle  se  reproduit,  elle  'nous  conduirait  avec 
rapidite  ^  la  tyrannie."    Moniteur,  Vol.  XV,  p.  11. 

90  Dec.  of  '89,  art.  16. 

91  See  stance  of  April  17,  1793.  Choix  de  Rapports,  XII, 
p.  285. 

92  Con.  of  '93,  art.  4. 

M  Ibid,  arts.  22,  23,  24  and  27. 


FUNCTIONS  OF  STATE,  177 

dum,^*  and  placed  the  delegated  power  thus  limited  in 
the  hands  of  one  legislative  body,^^  which  held  for  only 
a  year  and  had  only  administrative  power®®  to  be  ac- 
tually exercised  by  means  of  an  executive  council  which 
was  little  more  than  a  sort  of  ministry.^''  Such  a  con- 
stitution certainly  renders  unqualified  homage  to  the 
idea  of  a  Sovereign  Nation;  its  provisions  demonstrate 
the  will  to  vest  all  political  power  in  the  people,  the 
desire  to  make  them  the  state  and  to  constitute  all  dep- 
uties as  mere  functionaries  of  the  popular  authority. 
All  but  ordinance-making  power  was  reserved  to  the 
people  f^  thus,  the  nation  was  to  be,  in  fact  as  in  theory, 
the  final  depositary  of  political  power.  The  Constitu- 
tion of  ^93  stands  as  the  monument  of  how  the  Revo- 
lution tried  to  give  immediate  reality  to  the  new  dream 
of  absolute  popular  sovereignty. 

It  has  been  seen  how  the  theory  of  Natural  Eights 
defined  certain  limitations  upon  the  ruling  power,  since 
that  theory  outlined  a  sphere  of  activity  as  large  as 
possible  to  be  reserved  to  the  individual.  It  has  also 
been  seen  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Revolution  stood  for 
the  absolute  sovereignty  of  the  People,  the  supreme 
political  right  which  was  held  to  belong  to  the  majority 
of  the  nation,  exclusive  of  persons  feminine,  aristo- 
cratic, in  service  or  criminal. ^^  Thus,  in  a  sense,  the 
theory  with  regard  to  the  relation  between  state  and 

»4  Constitution  of  '93,  arts.  66,  57,  68. 

»5  Ibid,  art.  39. 

»6Art8.  55  and  69. 

97  Art.  62. 

88  Arts.  56,  57,  58  and  116. 

WArt.  4,  Con.  of  '93. 


178        PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

individual  has  been  implied.  But,  in  order  to  com- 
plete the  statement  of  the  important  principles  of  the 
Kevolution,  it  seems  desirable  to  define  explicitly  the 
theory  that  prevailed  concerning  the  relation  between 
the  collective  society  and  the  individual. 

If  one  is  predisposed  to  accept  the  idea  still  gen- 
erally received,  that  the  political  principles  of  the 
Kevolution  were  predominantly  individualistic,  the  re- 
sults of  a  study  of  the  current  conceptions  concerning 
the  functions  of  the  state  are  somewhat  surprising.  The 
absolutely  individualistic  point  of  view,  that  attitude 
which  limits  all  concerted  action  to  the  exercise  of 
such  power  as  shall  enable  functionaries  of  the  sover- 
eign to  insure  the  peace  and  to  collect  the  means  to 
carry  on  the  administration,  has  no  sanction  in  the  law 
nor  in  the  arguments  of  any  person  whose  opinions  had 
an  appreciable  influence.  Throughout  the  Kevolution, 
the  twofold  function  of  the  government,  government 
as  protector,  and  government  as  public  philanthropist 
and  educator,  is  fully  developed  in  theory;  later  doc- 
trine came  to  lay  formidable  stress  upon  the  second  as- 
pect of  this  function. 

The  doctrine  of  government  as  protector  is,  of 
course,  universally  accented  and  indorsed.  In  the 
Declaration  of  Eights,  and  in  the  constitutions,  govern- 
ment is  undoubtedly  conceived  of,  in  the  first  instance, 
as  an  institution,  or  rather  a  set  of  persons  into  whose 
hands  the  sovereign  intrusts  the  function  of  maintain- 
ing order  in  the  nation.^  The  definition  of  the  sev- 
eral rights  of  equality,  liberty  and  property  clearly  prq^ 

iDec.  of  '89,  art.  2j  Dec.  of  '93,  art.  1, 


FUNCTIONS   OF  STATE.  1^J^ 

scribe  that  the  sovereign  depute  this  service  to  govern- 
ment.^ Whatever  the  exact  character  of  the  organs 
of  control  created  by  the  sovereign,  the  primary  reason 
for  giving  such  organs  power  is  to  insure  order  and  sta- 
bility to  the  whole  association.^  The  duty  of  the  en- 
voys of  the  sovereign,  that  is,  the  duty  of  government, 
was  first  of  all  to  clear  the  way  so  that  each  individual 
might  have  the  fullest  possible  exercise  of  his  rights. 
In  1789,  the  Declaration  of  Eights  included  a  demand 
that  government  be  supplied  with  a  force  sufficient  to 
carry  out  this  important  service.  Of  course,  govern- 
ment was  to  "  reign  by  the  laws ''  not  "  over  the  laws.'^* 
All  fundamental  law  was  to  be  made  by  the  sovereign, 
and  government  was  held  to  be  the  watch-dog  of  this 
constitutional  law,  as  well  as  the  creator  of  such  addi- 
tional law  as  should  make  the  observation  of  the  pri- 
mary law  certain. 

As  to  the  further  function  of  government  it  was  not, 
as  has  sometimes  been  stated,  solely  the  practice  of  the 
Jacobin  government  which  introduced  the  idea  of  a 
state  activity  wider  than  that  of  mere  guardianship. 
As  has  already  been  seen,  the  assembly,  when  discussing 
natural  rights,  upheld  the  ideal  of  state  as  final  arbi- 
ter. The  very  idea  of  popular  sovereignty  includes  the 
notion  of  a  collective  will  acting  as  a  powerful,  undi- 
vided force,  which  in  the  last  resort  shall  decide  upon 

2  See  beside  art.  already  cited,  the  interesting  definition  in 
the  Declaration  decreed  April,  '93,  and  afterwards  abrogated 
in  favor  of  the  June  Declaration.  Note  especially  arts.  2,  5, 
9,  17,  18,  24. 

3  Comp.  €.  g.  Condorcet,  plan  of  Constitution,  stance  15th 
of  Feb.,  '93.     Choix  dc  Rapports,  XII,  p.  228. 

4Abb§  Grggoire.     Choix  de  Rapports,  I,  p.  37. 


130       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION, 

all  rights  of  the  individual.  Government  was  to  secTire 
to  each  man  "  the  free  and  entire  exercise  of  his  facul- 
ties, physical  and  moral/'^  and  a  yet  wider  sphere  is  sug- 
gested in  Title  I  of  the  Constitution  of  '91.  It  was  in 
reply  to  the  appeal  of  leaders  like  Target,®  Malouet,'' 
Servan,  and  perhaps  more  than  half  the  leaders  of  the 
Assembly,^  that  this  title  contained  the  clauses  creating 
establishments  for  public  charity,  for  foundlings,  for  the 
infirm  poor,  and  for  furnishing  work  for  those  who  are 
unable  to  find  it ;  it  was  this  same  title  which  made  gov- 
ernment the  power  to  orga^^ize  free  public  instruction. 
The  difference  between  these  provisions  and  those  of 
*93  is  a  difference  in  position  of  the  doctrine®  and  in  the 
manner  of  utterance. ^^  It  would  be  to  press  the  point 
under  discussion  too  far  to  insist  that  the  idea  of  state 
activity  was  quite  the  same  in  both  periods.  No  doubt 
the  dominant  note  of  the  Assembly  was  government  as 
the  power  to  maintain  liberty;  admittedly  the  guiding 
rule  of  the  Convention  was  government  as  the  medium 
for  the  maintenance  of  social  justice.  However,  in  the 
whole  period  there  was  an  undoubted  undercurrent  of 
similarity  when  it  is  question  of  the  work  to  be  under- 
taken by  the  state.     In  1791,  as  in  1793,  Eobespierre 

SMounier.  Stance  of  July  27,  1789.  Comp.  art.  2  of  the 
Dec.  of  1789. 

6  Stance  of  Aug.  3,  1789.  Cited  in  Michel.  L'Id6e  de 
I'Etat,  p.  91. 

7  Ibid. 

8  Comp.  also  the  projects  of  Declarations  by  Thouriet, 
Rabaud  de  St.  Etienne,  Sifeyes,  etc.,  already  noted. 

9  In  the  theories  of  '93,  the  same  clauses  have  been  placed 
among  the  Rights. 

10  Note  the  fervent  mention  of  the  "  dette  sacr§e "  which 
society,  according  to  the  Dec.  of  '93,  owes  to  each  unfortu- 
nate or  sufferer.     See  arts.  21  and  22,  Dec,  '93. 


FUNCTIONS  OF  STATE.  1g± 

held  that  the  duty  of  the  legislator  was  to  preserve  and 
to  form  the  public  morals,  source  of  all  liberty  and  of  all 
social  happiness^^  and  to  provide  each  person  who  could 
not  procure  himself  work  with  the  necessities  of  life.^ 
Reading  the  debates  of  the  first  months  of  the  Constitu- 
ent Assembly,  and  then  those  of  the  Convention/^  one 
gets  convincing  evidence  that  this  doctrine  of  Robe- 
spierre was  the  general  belief  during  the  whole  Revolu- 
tion.^* If  the  practice  of  ^93  and  thereafter  seemed  to 
put  most  weight  upon  the  second  part  of  the  state  duty, 
it  was  rather  because  special  events  gave  power  to  a  few 
fanatic  young  men,  like  Robespierre,  Saint  Just  and 
Couthon,  who  were  bent  on  realizing  immediately  and 
for  all  time  their  dreams  of  a  centralized  republic. 
Yet  even  these  extremists  were  not  at  odds  with  the 
general  theory  of  the  period;  they  only  expressed  it 
more  fervidly  and  believed  more  unhesitatingly  that  it 
might  be  realized.  At  all  periods,  the  revolutionary 
theorists  put  their  whole  faith  in  the  rationality  of  the 
Sovereign  People,  and  its  power  to  become  the  active 
political  agent  to  social  progress. 

11  Robespierre.     Speech  of  May  30,  1791. 

i2Choix  de  Rapports,  XTI,  p.  393.  Though  he  was  far 
from  practicing  it,  Robespierre's  idea  of  the  end  of  govern- 
ment is  a  very  fair  expression  of  the  revolutionary  ideal  on  the 
same  subject.  The  problem  of  government,  he  says,  is  solved 
by  giving  it  such  force  that  it  shall  bring  the  "  individual  to  obey 
the  general  will  and  yet  deprive  it  of  the  means  to  itself  sub- 
jugate the  individual."  The  vrhole  service  expected  of  gov- 
ernment is  to  protect  the  weak  against  the  strong.  (See 
Lettre  a  ses  Comm6ttants.     Blanc,  op.  cit.,  VII,  pp.  264-266.) 

13  Especially  during  the  months  of  April  and  June,  1793. 

14  See  e.  g.  Talleyrand's  remarks  in  his  speech  on  Church 
Property.  Choix  de  Rapports,  I,  pp.  90  et  seq.  In  this  he 
contends  at  length  for  the  final  power  of  the  state  to  adjust 
the  social  conditions  which  shall  surround  the  individual. 


IQ2        PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

In  urging  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  government  to 
secure  and  aid  the  many  against  the  few,  the  leaders  of 
the  Assembly  Convention  were  only  returning  to  the 
same  principle  of  the  relation  of  the  state  to  the  indi- 
vidual, which  has  always  controlled  the  political  theory 
of  France.  The  various  more  or  less  enlightened  des- 
potisms which  had  gone  along  with  the  growth  of  the 
French  nation  had  deeply  rooted  in  the  French  temper- 
ament the  idea  of  paternalism,  as  we  now  call  state 
control.  Neither  in  the  eighteenth  century  nor  in  the 
Eevolution,  or  in  modern  times  has  France  really  aban- 
doned this  principle.  The  idea  that  the  final  right  and 
duty  of  the  state  is  to  shape  the  individual  and  collec- 
tive life  of  a  nation,  had  held  throughout  French  his- 
tory, and  it  was  not  abandoned  during  the  Eevolution. 
However  much  the  revolutionists  rooted  out  the  old  in- 
stitutions, they  did  not  get  away  from  the  doctrine  that 
the  state  was  the  rehabilitating  and  developing  agent. 
The  notion  as  to  where  the  final  power  rested,  had 
changed;  the  mastership  was  clearly  and  definitely 
transferred  to  the  people;  this  was  the  new  principle 
which  the  Eevolution  brought.  That  exaggerated  be- 
lief in  the  value  and  sanctity  of  each  individual,  which 
developed  the  still-surviving  insistence  upon  the  theory 
that  government  may  only  proceed  by  way  of  restriction 
and  injunction,  is  a  belief  which  came  later.  This 
dogma,  purporting  also  to  derive  from  Eousseau,  is,  so 
far  as  the  writer  is  able  to  see,  not  discernible  in  the 
political  principles  of  the  Eevolution,  nor  in  those  po- 
litical writings  of  Eousseau  which  inspired  the  Eevolu- 
tion. As  has  been  shown,  the  revolutionary  principles 
stood  for  the  final  right  of  individual  judgment,  and  th^ 


FUNCTIONS  OF  STATE.  183 

whole  Ee volution  was  made  in  the  name  of  that  princi- 
ple. Yet,  after  all,  it  was  only  the  individual  judgment 
united  to  that  of  his  fellows,  it  was  only  the  judgment 
of  the  social  will  {moi  commun)  which  was  ever  really 
recognized  by  the  political  principles  of  the  Kevolu- 
tion.  There  is  no  evidence  that  any  of  the  revolution- 
ists realized  that  the  logical  conclusion  of  the  doc- 
trine of  individual  rights  was  the  theory  of  anarchy. 
The  idea  of  absence  of  government  played  no  real  part 
in  the  revolutionary  principles.  On  the  contrary,  all 
truly  revolutionary  principles  advocated  a  strong  and 
widespreading  manifestation  of  the  activity  of  the  col- 
lective will  in  order  to  the  best  interests  of  the  individ- 
ual and  the  general  well-being. 

In  fact,  the  strong  national  predisposition  for  central- 
ization is  never  better  evidenced  than  during  the  Revo- 
lution. Not  only  did  the  accepted  idea  of  state  make  it 
both  the  right  and  duty  of  the  government  to  act  for 
the  moral  as  well  as  the  physical  protection  of  the  com- 
muity;  it  was  held,  moreover,  that  in  order  to  fulfill  this 
double  service,  the  government  must  be  independent 
and  dominant.  Neither  church  nor  privileged  classes, ^'^ 
neither  small  nor  large  groups  within  the  nation^^  were 
to  have  any  but  an  entirely  subordinate  and  equal  rela- 
tion to  the  government.  Spiritual  authority  was  to 
play  no  part  in  social  control  ;^'^  the  state  was  ethical, 
not  theological  and  permitted  of  neither  direction  nor 
cooperation  from  any  theological  or  lesser  organization. 

15 Decrees  of  Aug.  4,  1789;  of  Nov.  5,  1789.  (Cited  in 
Sagnac,  La  Legislation  civile  de  la  Revolution  frangaise,  p.  38.) 

16  Decrees  of  Sept.  11,  1790:  June  17,  1791. 

17  Established  by  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy,  Dec.  26, 
1790.  Enforced  by  decree  against  non-juror  priests,  Nov. 
29^  179J, 


184       PRINCIPLES  OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

All  citizens,  all  territorial  divisions  held  equal  relation 
to  the  state;  for  all  citizens  in  all  parts  of  the  nation, 
the  will  of  the  state  was  the  law  against  which  there  was 
no  appeal. 

During  the  entire  epoch,  the  men  most  eager  to  create 
absolutely  new  institutions  never  got  away  from  the 
traditional  notion  that  the  state,  the  real  and  final  power 
for  individual  and  social  progress,  must  have  dominant 
control.  The  statutes  of  the  Convention  came  to  be 
so  many  witnesses  to  this  theory  of  government. 
When  legislation  comes  to  be  chiefly  laws  for  the 
regulation  of  social  customs  and  even  opinions,  these 
acts  prove  how  an  historic  tendency  will  survive  in  face 
of  an  imported  theory  which  found  currency  because 
it  had  immediate  usefulness.  The  belief  in  a  central- 
ized and  controlling  government  outlasts  the  newly 
discovered  sanctity  and  political  value  of  the  individual. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  said  that  the  most  important 
contributions  of  the  Eevolution  to  the  political  theory 
Qf  the  new  century  were  the  popularization  of  the  doc- 
trine of  Natural  Eights  and  the  clear  formulation  of 
the  idea  of  popular  sovereignty.  These  conceptions  sug- 
gest a  certain  antinomy  between  state  and  individual. 
On  the  one  hand,  revolutionary  theory  maintained  the 
sanctity  of  the  sphere  of  individual  activity  and  judg- 
ment; on  the  other,  it  stood  for  the  validity  and  force 
of  the  general  will,  when  expressed  in  government. 
The  general  will  was  to  serve  as  the  final  arbiter,  and 
was  to  decide  how  much  free  play  might  be  given  to  the 
particular  will.  The  idea  of  the  individual  implied  an 
independent,  self-sufficing  unit  in  society,  blessed  with 
innate  and  inalienable  capacities  for  happiness  and  good 


CONCLUSION.  135 

judgment,  able  to  be  the  personification  of  self-help,  if 
only  the  state  will  see  to  it  that  every  one  else  stands 
aside  and  gives  him  a  fair  chance  at  the  possibilities  of 
civilized  life.  The  idea  of  the  sovereign  throughout 
the  Eevolution  was,  in  the  last  analysis,  that  of  a  final 
and  independent  power,  acting  alone  and  unchecked  by 
any  intermediary  force  for  the  direct  benefit  and  protec- 
tion of  each  and  every  member  of  the  community.  The 
present  has  not  yet  rid  itself  of  this  contradiction  which 
was  the  most  notable  contribution  of  the  revolutionary 
period  to  our  time. 

The  statement  of  the  more  important  principles  of  the 
Eevolution  is  now  completed.  These  principles  were 
first  of  all  principles  of  revolt,  designed  to  establish  what 
seemed  a  social  order  more  propitious  than  that  which 
had  been  conducted  by  the  long-established  but  now 
discredited  authorities.  Their  guiding  principles  were 
not  deductions  from  the  history  of  man,  but  from  rea- 
son. Reason  discerned  a  divine  plan  whose  end  was  an 
eternal  tendency  to  harmony.  This  same  reason,  an 
internal  authority  against  which  there  was  no  tangible 
standard  of  argument,  made  out  society  and  the  social 
order  to  have  been  formed  by  a  voluntary  act  and  in 
self-protection;  it  held  that  both  society  and  a  given 
social  order  might  justly  continue  only  where  it  was 
fully  recognized  that  each  member  of  the  association 
had  a  natural  and  equal  share  in  the  privileges  of  asso- 
ciation. By  the  terms  of  association  it  was  held  to  be 
the  duty  of  the  associated  will  to  protect  all  members 
of  society  against  some  few  whose  physical  or  mental 
make-up  might  lead  them  to  infringe  upon  the  natural 
rights  of  others  in  a  selfish  seeking  after  a  fuller  satis- 


1^6     PRINCIPLES  OP  fuencb  revolution. 

faction  of  their  own  desires.  Thus  the  individual  had 
always  to  do  with  the  predominant  and  infallible  ma- 
jority voice,  and  the  fact  that  he  lived  in  society  and 
had  the  advantages  of  such  a  life  made  it  obligatory 
upon  each  individual  to  renounce  his  personal  rights 
whenever  that  majority  voice  believed  that  these  en- 
croached upon  the  rights  of  the  greatest  number.  The 
revolutionary  principles  stood  for  national  freedom; 
they  sought  to  give  to  each  individual  the  largest  pos- 
sible measure  of  political  justice,  to  insure  as  complete 
a  share  as  possible  of  peace,  security,  freedom  and 
property  to  every  member  of  the  nation.  But  in  spite 
of  the  keen  appreciation  of  the  existence  and  equal 
value  of  each  individual,  the  whole  tenor  of  the  revolu- 
tionary doctrine  and  practice  was  less  to  stimulate  an 
individualistic  movement  than  to  arouse  a  sentiment  in 
favor  of  a  sense  of  social  duty,  a  sense  of  fraternity.^® 
The  theory  laid  down  clearly  enough  that  society  was 
for  man,  not  man  for  society;  but  the  revolutionary  prin- 
ciple also  held  to  the  right  of  the  majority  as  the  pre- 
eminent right,  and  in  so  doing  neglected  man  for  Man. 
Having  adopted  the  doctrine  of  majority  rule,  with  their 
usual  logical  completeness  French  theorists  subordi- 
nated the  right  of  the  individual  to  the  right  of  the 
greatest  number  of  individuals;  they  tended  toward  the 
theory  which  deprecates  individual  progress  wherever 
this  acted  as  a  check  upon  social  progress.     After  all 

58  The  doctrine  of  fraternity  was  never  preached  in  precise 
terms  except  at  the  Cercle  Social,  and  in  the  "  Bouche  de 
Fer,"  the  organ  of  that  club;  but  the  idea  of  social  duties 
came  up  in  the  Assembly  (Seance  Aug.  14,  1789.  Moniteur, 
Vol.  I,  p.  277),  and  Robespierre  and  his  followers  always 
preached  it  in  an  international  spirit.  Comp.  Moniteur,  Vol. 
XVI,  p.  214.     "  Les  hommes  de  tous  les  pays  sont  frdres,"  etc. 


CONCLUSION.  187 

then,  it  would  seem  that  the  revolutionary  principles 
underlie  a  movement  which  holds  that  the  single  indi- 
vidual must  give  place  to  the  united  social  will.  The 
Eights  of  Man,  the  individualistic  part  of  the  theory, 
was  the  cry  of  revolt,  the  weapon  of  demolition;  the 
idea  of  popular  sovereignty  and  its  corollary  of  the 
rule  of  the  majority  was  the  constructive  part  of  the 
new  doctrine  and  was  the  principle  which  persisted 
with  most  force  in  the  doctrines  of  a  later  time.  The 
revolutionary  theory  on  the  whole,  does  not  assert  any 
doctrine  of  progress;  but,  arguing  on  the  ground  of 
rational  sanction,  it  sets  up,  as  basic  principles  for  or- 
ganized society,  the  doctrine  of  centralized  democracy, 
of  a  civil  and  political  liberty  as  complete  as  the  well- 
being  of  the  whole  community  will  permit,  and  the 
creed  of  entire  individual  freedom  in  the  industrial 
domain. 

The  first  part  of  the  research  here  undertaken  is  now 
completed.  It  has  been  briefly  shown  how  Frenchmen 
of  the  eighteenth  century  came  to  be  at  odds  with  the 
creeds  of  an  old  social  order,  and  how  this  quarrel  with 
the  old  institutions  bred  a  new  set  of  theories  which 
came  to  be  counted  fundamental  truths ;  finally,  the  gen- 
eral character  of  these  new  beliefs  has  been  described. 
The  discussion  must  now  pass  to  the  next  century,  there 
to  follow  another  series  of  progressive  changes  resulting 
in  another  body  of  principles  leveled  against  the  ac- 
cepted social  order.  The  second  part  of  this  study  un- 
dertakes to  show  those  immediate  influences  which  have 
developed  French  Socialism  to  a  specific  doctrine,  and 
to  state  the  character  of  that  doctrine  at  the  present 
time. 


183       PRINCIPLES   OF  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  FOR  CHAPTER  III. 

The  bibliography  of  Chapter  II,  of  co\irse,  furnishes  in  part 
the  material  for  Chapter  III,  but  in  addition  the  following 
books  are  of  value: 

Aulard.  La  Societe  des  Jacobins,  Paris,  1889-98 ;  Le  Culte 
de  la  Raison  et  le  Culte  de  I'Etre  Supreme,  ed.  Felix  Alcan, 
Paris,  1892. —  Buchez  et  Roux.  Histoire  parlementaire  de  la 
Revolution  frangaise.  Pieard  et  fils,  Paris,  1834-1838. — 
Choix  de  Rapports,  Opinions  et  Discours.  Ed.  Eymery,  Paris, 
1823. —  Condorcet.  Esquisse  d'une  histoire  des  progrfes  de 
Tesprit  humain.  ed.  Paris,  1795. —  Lichtenherger.  Le  Social- 
isme  et  la  Revolution  frangaise.  t'^Ux  Alcan,  Paris,  1899. — 
Moniteur.  Reprint  by  Plon  &  Cie.,  Paris,  1870. —  Morse-Ste- 
phens. Orators  of  the  Revolution,  ed.  Clarendon  Press,  Ox- 
ford, 1892. —  Mirabeau.  (Euvres.  ed.  Didier,  Paris,  1835. — 
Sagnac.  La  Legislation  civile  de  la  Revolution  frangaise.  Ed. 
Hachette  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1898.—  Volney,  (Euvres.  ed.  Wahlen, 
Bruxelles,  1822. 


PART  11. 

THE  DOCTRINES  OF  MODERN   FRENCH 
SOCIALISM. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  IMMEDIATE  ANTECEDENTS  OF 
MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 


CHAPTER  lY. 

THE  IMMEDIATE  ANTECEDENTS  OF  MODERN  FRENCH 
SOCIALISM. 

I.  The  Beginnings  of  Modern  French  Socialism. 
II.  Ideas  Which  French  Idealistic  Socialism  Had  in 
Common  with  All  Socialistic  Thinking. 
III.  Characteristics   of   This   Early   Socialism   Which 

Are  New  to  Socialistic  Theory. 
IV.  Influence  of  the  French  Idealistic  Group. 


When,  in  ages  to  come,  men  shall  write  the  philosophi- 
cal history  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  final  develop- 
ment of  the  idea  of  nationality  will  perhaps  be  accounted 
the  most  striking  fact  of  political  history.  And  yet, 
the  story  of  the  century's  growth  must  also  include 
the  tale  of  discoveries  which  have  given  to  each  social 
group,  growing  more  and  more  well-defined  within  its 
borders,  the  means  for  an  intercourse  swifter  and  more 
important  than  any  hitherto  known  to  men.  It  must 
tell  that,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  national  pride  and  na- 
tional distinctions  have,  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
grown  greater  than  ever  before,  certain  important  so- 
cial movements  have  been  notably  international. 

This  fact  is  particularly  true  of  socialism.  Since  the 
incoming  of  the  century,  the  socialistic  movement  has 
been  a  marked  phenomenon  in  all  the  most  civilized 
nations  of  Europe,  and  since  the  second  half  of  the  cen- 
tury it  has  been  a  movement  essentially  international. 
France,  England,  Germany,  Italy  have  each  one  in  turn 
13  193 


194       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM, 

seen  the  rise  of  factions  urging  in  some  way  the  prin- 
ciple of  association  as  a  theory  of  government. 

The  growth  and  development  of  the  theory  in  France 
is  here  the  only  socialistic  movement  in  question. 
Neither  the  specifically  economic  rising  for  self-asser- 
tion among  the  English  wage-earners  nor  the  meta- 
physical and  political  movement  in  Germany  is  to  be 
taken  into  account,  except  as  each  concerns  the  de- 
velopment of  modern  French  socialism. 

The  socialistic  movement  as  such  began  in  France, 
and  has  steadily  grown  there  as  the  result  of  specific  in- 
fluences. Modern  French  socialism  represents,  as  did 
the  principles  of  the  Eevolution,  the  latest  stage  in  a 
process  which  has  been  made  up  of  the  progress  of  a 
radical  social  philosophy  and  certain  social  facts  acting 
to  give  that  philosophy  a  particular  character.  First 
of  the  influences  upon  the  character  of  the  French  so- 
cialism of  our  day  is  a  certain  type  of  social  philosophy 
which  early  acquired  the  name  of  socialism.^  Certain 
aspects  of  the  national  growth  of  France  modified  that 
philosophy,  and  became  in  a  way  the  final  and  deter- 
mining influence  upon  the  doctrine. 

The  history  of  the  theory  of  socialism  in  France^  dur- 
ing the  nineteenth  century  separates  into  two  sharply 
distinguished  periods,  during  one  of  which  the  doctrine 

1  The  origin  of  the  word  socialism  is  variously  given. 
French  authorities  attribute  it  either  to  Reybaud  (so  does 
Ely,  French  and  German  Socialism,  p.  29)  or  say  that  Le- 
roux  invented  it  and  Reybaud  vulgarized  it.  (see  e.  g.  Villey, 
Le  Socialisme  Contemporain,  p.  I,  Pref.)  Kirkup  (History  of 
Socialism,  p.  1)    claims  an  English  origin  for  it. 

2  The  same  is  true  of  course  elsewhere,  but  it  is  always  to 
be  remembered  that  it  is  only  French  socialism  which  is  hera 
the  subject  of  discussion. 


LEADING  EARLY  SOCIALISTS,  195 

is  entirely  French,  is  idealistic  and  evangelical  and  usu- 
ally ready  to  compromise  with  the  prevailing  social  in- 
stitutions. During  the  other  period,  the  theories  be- 
come predominatingly  foreign  and  scientific,  propagan- 
dist and  uncompromising  in  regard  to  the  social  order. 
The  socialism  of  the  first  period  expressed  itself  in  a 
series  of  somewhat  revolutionary  movements,  each  stim- 
ulated by  men  who  had  been  greatly  influenced  by  the 
strictly  Kousseau  side  of  the  Kevolution.  The  names 
and  the  doctrines  of  those  who  represent  this  Idealistic 
socialism  in  France,  are,  most  of  them,  familiar  to  every 
student  of  socialism.  More  or  less  careful  studies  of 
Babeuf,  Cabet,^  Proudhon,*  Saint  Simon,  Fourier  and 
Louis  Blanc  appear  in  every  history  of  socialism.     Pec- 

3  Cabet  and  his  "  Icaria "  had  little  lasting  influence. 
Cabet's  theory  aspires  toward  individual  comfort  and  luxury; 
but  although  he  thus  theoretically  recognizes  the  rights  of 
the  individual,  Cabet's  paramount  object  is  an  uncompromis- 
ing equality  leading  to  a  strictly  communal  life.  The  lib- 
erty of  the  individual  to  develop  depends  upon  the  liberty  of 
all  to  develop;  there  shall  be  enjoyment,  but  only  equal  en- 
joyment. Liberty  is  said  to  be  supremely  desirable,  but, 
under  a  definition  which  makes  liberty  "  the  right  to  do  every- 
thing which  is  not  forbidden  by  nature,  reason  and  society, 
and  to  abstain  from  everything  which  is  not  ordered  by  them  " 
(Voyage  en  Icarie,  p.  404),  the  customary  idea  of  liberty  may 
fairly  be  said  to  be  lost.  With  Cabet,  the  state  is  to  think, 
act  and  desire;  the  individual  is  to  obey,  to  serve  and  enjoy 
what  is  justly  his.  All  of  this  is  the  social  principle  at  the 
root  of  communism ;  Cabet  with  his  "  Vrai  Christianisme " 
and  his  "  Voyage  en  Icarie "  is  rather  a  successor  to  Plato, 
to  Ramsay,  to  Mably,  than  a  predecessor  of  R§nard  or 
Deville. 

^Proudhon's  place  among  the  predecessors  of  Modern  So- 
cialism may  be  and  has  been  subject  to  question;  yet  it  would 
seem  that,  rightly  understood,  Proudhon's  "  anarchy  "  is  very 
like  later  French  Socialism.  Proudhon's  state  disappears  in 
an  industrial  organization  exactly  as  does  that  of  Deville  or 


196       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

queur  and  Vidal,  Buchez  and  Leroux  are  less  com- 
monly discussed  by  English  writers.  The  relation  of 
each  of  these  socialists  to  the  latest  form  of  the  doc- 
trine they  preached  differs  in  degree,  yet  all  alike  had 
some  share  in  stimulating  the  movement  and  shaping 
its  principles.  Interpreting  variously  the  principles  of 
the  Revolution,  differing  sharply  among  themselves  on 
questions  of  metaphysics  and  administration,  they  yet 
so  far  agreed  on  certain  general  lines  that  it  is  quite 
possible  to  find  a  number  of  similar  doctrines  which 
might  be  called  the  leading  principles  of  the  French 
idealistic  socialists.  Taken  together,  these  principles 
constitute  the  first  and  most  lasting  literary  influences 
behind  the  present  socialistic  doctrine  in  France. 

These  early  socialists  are  called  idealistic  socialists 
because  each  of  them  had  an  ideal  of  social  harmony, 
and  protested  against  the  social  order  as  an  erro- 
neous social  arrangement  which  did  not  express  this 
harmony.  They  all  believed  also  that,  through  a  wise 
social  supervision,  an  association  of  men  was  pos- 
sible where  justice  could  prevail  and  each  man  be  in- 
sured happiness.  Each  one  felt  that  the  immediate 
way  to  transform  an  unpropitious  social  order  to  one 
which  might  represent  peace  and  justice,  was  to  begin 
an  active  social  movement  for  a  general  education  which 
should  better  men's  moral  standards  and  then  teach 
them  the  necessity  of  leaving  all  productive  property 
to  the  control  of  society.     Then  too,  unlike  those  who 

his  master,  Marx.  On  fundamental  questions,  the  diflFerence 
between  Proudhon  and  these  later  reformers  lies  in  the  closer 
reasoning  and  orreater  precision  of  statement  of  the  Marxists 
rather  than  in  any  real  difference  of  doctrine. 


CHARACTERISTIC  THEORIES.  197 

wove  ideals  similar  to  these  into  utopian  commonwealths 
which  they  never  expected  to  see  realized,  every  one  of 
these  agitators  set  out  with  a  fierce  determination  to 
conquer  the  reality  to  their  aims.  Each  one  of  them 
appealed  to  facts  of  the  existence  they  knew,  in  order  to 
justify  their  claim.  In  fact,  all  may  be  said  to  have  had 
a  practical  aim  and  to  have  tried  to  adopt  a  scientific 
method.  All  preached,  in  a  more  or  less  defined  way, 
the  doctrine  of  progress,  and  asserted  that  the  change 
in  institutions  which  they  desired  was  in  the  direct  line 
of  social  progress.  All  had  very  nearly  the  same  ob- 
jections to  the  industrial  organization  they  knew,  and 
in  general  lines  asked  for  the  same  first  steps  toward 
final  remedy. 

Some  of  these  characteristics  of  the  group,  for  exam- 
ple, their  ideal  of  social  harmony,  their  belief  in  indi- 
vidual happiness  and  social  justice,  their  accent  upon 
the  value  of  education  as  means  to  reform  and  their  at- 
tack upon  accepted  property  forms,  are  doctrines  which 
have  been  those  of  all  utopian  and  communistic  thinkers 
since  Plato  wrote  his  Eepublic  or  the  clerical  and  Ana- 
baptist societies  of  Germany  or  Holland  drew  away  into 
little  groups. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  practical  and  scientific  method 
which  these  idealistic  socialists  try  to  put  into  their  doc- 
trines, their  idea  of  progress  and  the  important  social 
bearing  they  attach  to  the  relation  between  the  state 
and  industry  are  the  contributions  of  this  earlier  social- 
ism to  modern  socialistic  thinking.  These  characteris- 
tics, old  and  new,  of  the  Idealistic  French  socialism,  are 
of  sufficient  interest  to  require  that  each  of  them  be 
stated  with  some  precision. 


198       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM, 

II. 

A  pessimistic  view  of  the  present  is  the  first  essential 
to  the  making  of  a  socialist,  but  this  alone  will  not  suf- 
fice. This  spirit  will  produce  the  man  who  dreams  of 
"  Cities  of  the  Sun/'  but  it  will  not  lead  him  to  expect 
to  see  them  realized.  To  be  a  socialist,  a  second  charac- 
teristic is  equally  essential.  Along  with  a  pessimistic 
attitude  in  regard  to  the  present,  there  must  go  an  un- 
quenchable hopefulness  in  regard  to  some  better  future 
to  be  realized  here  on  earth.  Such  hopefulness  seems 
to  have  been  a  special  privilege  of  our  time.  It  has 
been  well  said  that  the  main  trend  of  thought  in  our 
age  has  been  the  conscious  pursuit  of  social  well-being.*^ 
This  is  undoubtedly  true.  It  is  probable  that,  during 
this  century,  more  persons  than  ever  before  have  ad- 
vanced theories  which  set  out  to  solve  the  essential 
problem  of  social  philosophy  and  develop  rapidly  a  reign 
of  justice.  The  writers  now  under  discussion  express 
this  appeal  for  a  better  and  more  nearly  perfect  order 
with  a  vigor  and  positiveness  new  to  this  particular 
kind  of  crusade  against  the  social  order.  The  utopist, 
the  communist,  is  gone.  The  socialistic  thinker,  such 
as  Mably  or  Morelly,  is  equally  a  thing  of  the  past. 
The  socialist,  as  such,  begins  to  write. 

The  socialistic  writings  under  discussion,  as  all  social- 
istic writing  from  Grecian  to  modern,  express  a  shad- 
owy preconception  of  a  fore-ordained  plan  which  ar- 
ranged an  eternal  harmony  for  nature  and  man.  These 
modem  critics  of  society  were  chiefly  interested,  of 
course,  to  find  the  way  to  realize  the  prearranged  ter- 

5  Reybaud.  Etudes  sur  les  R§formateurs  contemporains  ou 
SociaUsme  moderne. 


IDEAL  OF  SOCIAL  HARMONY.  199 

reetrial  harmony.  Men  do  not  necessarily  renounce  the 
idea  of  a  supreme  happiness  transcending  the  possibili- 
ties of  human  happiness  because  they  believe  that  har- 
mony and  content  could  and  should  be  the  order  here; 
and  these  socialists,  as  well  as  another,  often  nursed 
their  "  larger  hope." 

It  is  an  important  distinguishing  characteristic  of 
these  idealistic  socialists  that,  although  each  touches 
but  lightly  upon  metaphysical  or  religious  doctrine, 
none  of  them  is  dogmatically  materialistic  or  insist- 
ently rationalistic.  There  is  a  current  use  of  the  word 
God,  employed  in  the  deistic  or  pantheistic  rather  than 
in  the  theological  interpretation.  However,  it  is  so 
much  their  chief  interest  to  point  the  many  evident  di- 
vergences in  reality  from  the  prearranged  plan  dis- 
cerned that,  where  the  name  of  Deity  is  used,  it  is  as  an 
accepted  premise  and  not  as  a  matter  of  debate.  They 
were  content  to  hold  the  metaphysical  subordinate  and 
to  center  all  their  interest  upon  social  problems. 

Fourier's  point  of  view  in  this  regard  is  fairly  indica- 
tive of  that  common  to  all  the  group.  After  a  some- 
what elaborate  exposition  of  a  cosmogony  where  a  be- 
neficent Deity  was  to  conduct  to  an  ultimate  harmony,  a 
world  of  which  he  was  at  once  essence  and  director;  a 
cosmogony  where  both  the  past  and  the  extreme  future 
life  of  this  planet  are  determined  and  the  most  remote 
plans  of  the  Deity  discerned ;  where  the  fate  of  the  soul 
before  and  after  death  is  elaborated  from  a  standpoint 
which  makes  its  real  happiness  dependent  upon  a 
rounded  personal  existence  for  both  incarnated  soul  and 
planetary  soul,  Fourier  exclaims,  "  But  what  matter  are 
these  accessories  to  the  question  of  chief  importance, 


200       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

which  is  the  art  of  organizing  combined  industry  whence 
will  be  born  the  quadruple  product,  good  morals,  accord 
of  the  three  classes,  rich,  middle  and  poor;  forgetful- 
ness  of  the  quarrels  of  parties,  the  cessation  of  pests,  of 
revolution,  of  fiscal  penury;  and  universal  unity."® 
Saint  Simon,  perhaps,  accepts  Christianity,  especially 
when  he  hoped  to  further  his  schemes  by  winning  the 
suffrage  of  its  supporters;*^  Proudhon  is  full  of  re- 
proaches to  a  God  who  has  failed  to  do  his  duty;^  Louis 
Blanc  is  a  deist  of  the  school  of  Eousseau,^  but  all  are 
alike  in  this ;  they  content  themselves  with  some  person- 
ally worked-out  or  authoritatively  accepted  theory  of 
first  causes,  and  hurry  on  to  the  mundane  arrangements 
which  seem  to  them  of  first  importance. 

6  Fourier  completely  lost  his  bearings  and  wasted  his  beat 
talent  in  the  elaboration  of  a  psychology  of  men  and  nations, 
a  theory  which  led  him  to  rest  his  final  hope  of  social  regen- 
eration upon  the  *'  law  of  passional  attraction "  which  this 
study  revealed.  Fourier  held  that  when  fully  understood  and 
made  the  moral  basis  of  society,  this  law  which  he  believed 
himself  to  have  discovered  was  to  give  equilibrium  to  the 
rational  world  as  the  law  of  gravitation  keeps  the  forces  of 
Nature  in  just  poise.  Undoubtedly,  this  earnest  and  sincere 
thinker,  who  looked  upon  himself  as  a  modern  Columbus  dis- 
covering a  new  social  world  for  a  skeptical  and  ungrateful 
public,  set  himself  apart  by  this  "  law "  in  a  niche  where 
originality  is  the  only  virtue  for  which  honor  is  due  him. 
Yet  mixed  with  the  faulty  psychology  on  which  he  himself  lays 
so  much  regrettable  stress,  there  is  a  scheme  for  social  reform 
which  includes  many  of  the  elements  of  modern  socialism. 
On  Fourier,  comp.  Michel  (a  most  interesting  study),  op. 
cit.,  pp.  375  et  seq. ;  Reybaud,  op.  cit.,  Vol.  I;  Godin,  Social 
Solutions. 

7  Saint  Simon.  (Euvres,  (Du  Syst^me  Industriel),  XXII,  p. 
232,  ed.  Dentu. 

8  See  notably  many  phrases  in  Systemes  des  Contradiction 
^conomiques. 

9  Note  for  e.  g.  in  Histoire  de  la  Revolution  frangaise,  I, 
388  et  seq. 


IDEAL  OF  SOCIAL  HARMONY. 


201 


As  to  the  world  about  us,  these  socialists  begin,  as 
all  socialists  do,  with  a  courageous  denial  of  necessary 
evil.  Society  and  the  individual  are  inherently  good, 
not  bad.  Taking  their  cue  from  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury philosophy,  the  French  socialists  of  the  first  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century  are  optimists  with  regard  to 
the  natural  propensities  of  mankind.  Therefore,  they 
deny  that  egotism  is  a  normal  instinct  of  human  nature ; 
they  assert,  on  the  contrary,  the  innate  goodness  and 
unselfishness  of  the  individual.  This  socialism  begins 
that  exaltation  of  the  individual  which  is  the  distinctive 
characteristic  of  the  nineteenth  century  socialism.  No 
longer  a  plan  for  the  service  of  humanity  in  general, 
most  socialism  becomes  a  special  remedial  movement 
with  the  development  and  happiness  of  the  individual 
as  its  ultimate  aim. 

Also,  this  class  of  thinkers  generally  believe  that  men, 
though  by  nature  well-meaning,  are  dependent  upon 
guidance.  This  is,  in  fact,  the  controlling  idea  of  these 
socialists  and  of  all  socialists  —  the  idea  that  individual 
virtue  is  finally  dependent  upon  the  direction  and  in- 
spiration of  society.  Social  creeds  make  or  mar  men; 
social  direction  develops  them  from  brutes  or  degrades 
them  to  something  worse  than  beasts.  It  is  the  generic 
principle  of  socialistic  philosophy  as  opposed  to  indi- 
vidualistic, that  the  social  guarantee  is  finally  the  mak- 
ing and  salvation  of  the  individual.  Arguing  thus,  it 
is  but  natural  that,  for  such  thinkers,  it  seems  of  first 
importance  to  find  a  social  organization  which  shall  jus- 
tify itself  by  securing  to  every  individual  happiness 
and  the  means  to  develop. 


202       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM, 

The  doctrine  of  Eights  promulgated  during  the  Kevo- 
lution  is  clearly  and  universally  reasserted  by  all  of 
these  radical  writers.  We  are  told,  as  we  were  told  by 
the  Revolutionists,  that  men  have  a  natural  right  to  hap- 
piness and  to  liberty  and  equality/^  in  order  that  they 
may  develop,  but  we  are  also  told  that  this  right  to  hap- 
piness and  development  is  not  without  its  limits.  Like 
the  men  who  made  the  Declaration  of  Rights,  these 
men  believe  that  the  individual  may  have  only  the  great- 
est possible  happiness,  and  like  these  predecessors  they 
find  the  limit  to  that  happiness  in  the  happiness  of 
others.  They  repeat  with  conviction  that  doctrine  of 
the  rights  of  the  majority  which  the  Convention  prac- 
ticed. 

Only  Babeuf  pushed  this  doctrine  of  the  rights  of  the 
greatest  number  to  logical  completeness.  The  conspi- 
racy of  "  Les  Egaux  ''  was  really  the  culmination  of  the 
feverish  demand  for  equality,  which,  in  certain  circles, 
grew  to  be  a  fixed  idea  during  the  years  of  the  Conven- 
tion.^^ The  idea  of  social  uniformity  is  a  fundamental 
note  of  Babouvism.  It  represents  a  dream  of  establish- 
ing content  by  way  of  a  state  control  which  should  arbi- 
trarily eliminate  all  inequalities  of  capacity  and  of  hold- 

10  Saint  Simon  in  this,  as  in  many  other  things,  is  an  ex- 
ception. He  states  plainly  that  rights  do  not  derive  from 
natural  claims,  but  from  expediency.  "Les  droits  de  chaque 
associ6  ne  peuvent  ^tre  fondes  que  sur  les  facult§s  qu'il  pos- 
sftde,  pour  concourir  au  but  commun."  CEuvres,  (Syst^me 
Industriel)  Vol.  XXII,  p.  193;  also  in  CEuvres,  (L'Organis- 
ateur)  XX,  p.  145. 

11  Note  how  the  "  Conspiration  "  indorsed  the  Constitution 
of  '93  and  the  doctrines  concerning  the  natural  right  of  equal- 
ity which  had  so  much  vogue  during  1793  and  1794.  The  Con- 
spiration, as  has  been  before  suggested,  is  to  be  traced  to  Claude 
Fauchet  and  the  Cercle  Social  rather  than  to  the  Jacobins. 


INDIVIDUAL  HAPPINESS.  203 

ing  —  a  dream  that  has  no  part  among  the  beliefs  of  the 
most  influential  thinkers  along  modern  socialistic  lines. 
Babouvism  asks  for  a  society  where  laws,  democratically 
made,  it  is  true,  shall  maintain  a  strict  level  in  culture 
and  pleasure,  in  possession  and  the  use  of  such  posses- 
sions. Equality,  as  understood  by  Babeuf  rests  upon 
principles  which  involve  an  absolute  neglect  of  the  facts 
of  individual  dissimilarity  and  a  complete  subordina- 
tion of  the  individual  to  the  state.  When  Babouvism 
prescribes  a  set  of  arbitrary  measures  to  eliminate  and 
prevent  all  personal  differences  of  temperament  or  ca- 
pacity, it  thus  separates  itself  entirely  from  all  the  more 
important  predecessors  of  modern  French  socialism. 
For  this  reason,  notwithstanding  its  creed  of  democracy 
and  its  practical  and  nationalistic  character,  Babouvism 
is  to  be  counted  of  secondary  importance  among  the 
antecedents  of  the  current  French  socialism. ^^ 

It  has  been  said  that,  contending  for  the  individuars 
rights,  these  socialists  no  longer  grant  the  thesis  that 
the  individual  is  to  merge  his  personality  in  society. 
The  belief  that  the  end  is  social  growth,  irrespective  of 
the  destiny  of  the  particular  members  of  society,  is  not 
usual.  Buchez  and  Leroux,  the  one  teaching  a  religion 
of  progress,  the  other,  a  religion  of  humanity,  are  the 
noteworthy  exceptions.  They  represent  the  extreme 
idealization  of  society  as  opposed  to  the  many  who,  at 
the  time,  neglected  society  to  take  account  of  the  indi- 
vidual man  alone. 

12  There  is  a  most  interesting  study  of  Babeuf  in  Espinas. 
La  Philosophie  Sociale  au  XVIIIe  siScle  et  la  Revolution,  pp. 
196-412;  comp.  also  Reybaud,  op.  cit.,  II,  pp.  368-387. 


204       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

According  to  Buchez  or  Leroux,  it  is  the  individual 
who  is  made  by  and  for  society,  not  society  which  is 
the  result  of  individual  activity.  ^^  For  both,  the  sin- 
gle aim,  whether  of  the  individual,  the  nation  or  of 
humanity,  was  the  establishment  of  the  moral  law  as 
revelation  shows  it  to  man;  for  both,  the  individual  is 
always  subordinate  to  humanitj^,^*  and  the  duties  of 
the  individual  take  precedence  of  any  particular  claim 
for  the  individual  right.  Under  the  theory  of  modern 
socialism,  society  in  the  last  resort  is  for  the  service  of 
the  individual,  and  whatever  sacrifice  of  personal  tastes 
the  individual  must  make  is  only  in  the  end  of  an  ulti- 
mate fuller  personal  satisfaction ;  there  is  no  idea  of  any 
but  a  utilitarian  and  finally  egotistical  self-denial.  With 
this  real  and  constant  inconsistency  of  all  specifically 
socialistic  teaching  of  our  day,  neither  Buchez  nor  Le- 
roux  have  anything  in  common.  The  ideal  of  each  is 
happiness  by  way  of  poverty,  simplicity  of  wants,  sacri- 
fice and  devotion  to  humanity  ;^^  the  individual  disap- 

13  Buchez.  Traits  de  Politique,  t.  I,  pp.  360,  361  (cited  in 
Michel,  p.  217).  Leroux.  De  I'HumanitS,  I,  p.  18,  and  Mal- 
thus  et  les  Economistes,  p.  136.  (Comp.  Michel,  op.  cit.,  p. 
223.) 

14  Buchez.  Traits  de  politique,  I,  p.  61.  "  L'homme  con- 
sider6  individuellement,  n'a  lui-mgme  de  valeur  que  par  le 
but  qui  I'anime."  See,  also,  Hist,  parlementaire,  Vol.  XXIII, 
pref.,  p.  XV.  For  Leroux  on  the  same  point,  see  De  PHuman- 
ite,  Vol.  I,  p.  248.     (Cited  in  Michel,  p.^  222.) 

15  Comp.  Buchez,  "  Le  premier  en  dignity  social  sera  celui 
qui  aura  voulu  §tre  le  dernier  en  jouissance  materielles" 
(cited  in  Michel,  p.  216).  See,  also,  Hist,  parlementaire,  Vol. 
XXIII,  pref.,  p.  XX,  where  he  declares  that  when  "  la  pau- 
vr6t6  sera  en  haut  et  la  richesse  en  has,"  then  only  will  the 
French  Revolution  really  be  accomplished.  Leroux.  See  "  De 
I'Egalite,  2e  partie,  chap,  iv  (cited  in  Michel,  p.  223).  The 
doctrines  of  Leroux,  especially  in  this  connection,  get  an  artis- 
tic and  fervid  expression  in  the  work  of  George  Sand.    Se« 


SOCIAL  JUSTICE,  205 

pears  before  society;  the  ideal  of  charity  is  replaced  by 
that  of  solidarity  as  a  duty.^^  Add  to  this,  that  Buchez 
and  Leroux  advocated  a  policy  which,  in  fundamentals 
at  least,  represents  a  despotic  central  control  that 
absorbs  and  modifies  the  individual  initiative  in  a  fash- 
ion entirely  outside  the  aims  of  any  modern  socialistic 
scheme,  and  it  will  be  evident  that,  while  they  may 
have  done  something  to  strengthen  the  modern  social- 
ist's idea  of  the  organic  relation  between  society  and 
the  individual,  they  had  no  wide  influence  on  the  gen- 
eral doctrines  of  modern  collectivism. 

The  term  "  social  justice ''  best  describes  the  idea  of 
justice  which  prompts  the  doctrine  of  rights  urged  by 
most  of  the  French  idealistic  socialists.  Justice  was 
not  with  any  of  them  an  absolute  conception ;  the  word, 
on  the  contrary,  was  used  as  a  relative  term  and  waited 
the  decision  of  society  for  its  content.^"^  The  aim  of 
any  social  organization  is  the  realization  of  social  jus- 
tice where  social  justice  is  taken  to  mean  the  expression 
in  institutions  of  the  desires  and  needs  of  the  major 
part  of  society. 

What  is  claimed  to  be  the  moral  justification  of  this 
conception  of  justice  runs  somewhat  as  follows.  Indi- 
vidual happiness,  both  as  a  means  and  as  an  end,  means 

e.  g.  "  Compagnon  du  tour  de  France "  or  of  the  "  Lettre  de 
Philon  a  Ignaee  Joseph  Martinowicz "  at  the  end  of  the 
"  Comtesse  de  Rudolstadt." 

i6Buchez.  Hist,  parlementaire,  t.  XL,  pref.,  p.  vi  (cited 
in  Michel,  op.  cit.,  p.  215).  Leroux.  De  l'Humanit6,  t.  I,  pp. 
189-191.      (Cited  in  Michel,  p.  224.) 

17  See  €.  g.  Proudhon.  What  is  property?  p.  234,  1st  mem., 
Eng.  ed. ;  Id^e  g6n6rale  de  la  Revolution  au  XIXe  siScle,  p.  274. 
Saint  Simon.  CEuvres  (De  Tlndustrie),  XIX,  p.  30  et  seq. 
Louis  Blanc.  Questions  d'aujourd'hui  et  de  demain,  Vol.  Ill, 
pp.  144  et  seq. 


206       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

freedom.  If  there  is  to  be  any  hope  of  individual  per- 
fection, there  must  be  absolutely  free  play  of  the  nat- 
ural propensities  of  man.  The  passions,  it  was  said, 
are  the  justifiable  regulators  of  individual  acts  and  only 
need  full  and  equal  exercise  in  order  that  a  perfectly 
harmonious  individual  development  may  result;  the  in^ 
tellectual  life  is  only  the  increment  of  the  physical  life, 
and  the  quality  and  effectiveness  of  that  intellectual  life 
depend  upon  the  kind  of  physical  development  which 
the  individual  has  been  able  to  get.  The  happiness  of 
man  is  secured  when  he  is  given  the  greatest  possible 
freedom  in  the  matter  of  physical  and  mental  develop- 
ment. Saint  Simon's  rule,  "  Fais  chacun  aussi  libre  que 
tu  veux  etre ;  voici  toute  la  morale ''  expressed  his 
idea  and  that  of  all  the  others.  Since  happiness  is  a 
necessity  of  man's  being  and  he  depends  for  such  hap- 
piness upon  his  complete  physical  development,  every 
man  must  of  course  be  as  far  as  possible  free  to  develop, 
that  he  may  in  the  sum  of  social  activity  be  best  able 
to  bring  his  special  capacities  to  the  general  social 
work.^^  But  the  physical  and  mental  inequalities 
among  men  are  such  that,  unless  some  power  be  found 
to  equalize  these  differences,  certain  members  of  society 
will  be  able  to  prey  upon  others  and  no  one  will  be 
really  happy.  The  conquerors,  few  in  number,  get 
false  notions  of  happiness  born  of  the  vices  which  their 
unjust  domination  breeds  and  the  dominated  grow  in- 
creasingly and  infinitely  miserable.  There  is  evidently 
no  real  well-being  until  the  desires  of  all  or  of  the  great- 
est possible  number  are  equally  satisfied.     In  the  eyes 

isCEuvres,  XXIII,  p.  81. 


SOCIAL  JUSTICE.  20Y 

of  this  group  of  socialistic  thinkers  —  though  they  are 
not  usually  conscious  of  it  —  the  real  end  for  which 
society  is  established  seems  to  be  social,  not  individual 
well-being. 

But  in  the  minds  of  the  idealistic  socialists,  individ- 
ual happiness  does  not  really  wait  upon  an  entirely 
realized  social  happiness.  Nothing  better  demonstrates 
the  strongly  idealistic  bent  of  these  men  than  their  be- 
lief that  the  individual  must  and  will  find  his  real  hap- 
piness in  the  happiness  of  all.  In  this  way  they  be- 
lieve it  possible  to  obviate  the  seeming  inconsistency 
between  the  idea  of  complete  individual  happiness  and 
that  of  social  happiness.  Most  of  them  have  faith  in 
what  later  times  calls  the  altruistic  tendencies  of  human 
nature, ^^  and  thus  they  reconcile  the  ideal  of  complete 
individual  happiness  with  that  of  social  justice.  As  has 
been,  said,  every  theory  in  question  posits  the  notion 
that  the  developed  man  is  never  entirely  egotistical 
and  argue  from  this  that  those  more  fully  endowed 
whether  in  mental  or  material  possessions,  will  always 
find  happiness  in  putting  some  of  their  larger  holding 
at  the  disposal  of  the  less  capable  or  the  less  wealthy. 
The  universal  tendency  among  these  writers  to  regulate 
society  for  the  benefit  of  the  laboring-classes  does  not 
begin  only  in  the  desire  to  exalt  labor, —  though  this 
plays  a  noteworthy  part  in  forming  that  idea.  The 
tendency  resulted  rather  from  a  profound  conviction 
that  talent  and  capital  should  and  will,  in  response  to 

19  This  is  particularly  true  of  Fourier  and  Louis  Blanc. 
Comp.  the  whole  "  passional "  doctrine  of  the  former  in  the 
"  Th^orie  des  Quatre  Mouvements "  and  the  Revolution  fran- 
caise  of  the  other;  in  particular,  I,  pp.  9,  10;  II,  p.  492. 


208       MODERN  FRENCB   SOCIALISM, 

the  best  impulses  of  human  nature,  abdicate  some  of 
their  privileges  in  favor  of  their  poorer  fellows.  Kecog- 
nizing  fully  the  rights  of  the  whole  race  to  enjoyment, 
it  is  believed  that  it  will  always  be  the  impulse  of 
higher  thinking  to  recognize  and  strive  for  the  rights 
of  the  poor.^  When  the  few,  wisely  taught,  shall  be 
willing  to  abdicate  their  superfluity  for  the  benefit  of 
the  many,  when  they  shall  know  that  they  will  find  a 
better  individual  happiness  in  such  abdication,  social 
justice  will  be  synonymous  with  abstract  justice.  It  is 
again  to  be  repeated  that,  with  the  exceptions  already 
noted,  no  one  of  these  idealistic  socialists  specifically 
taught  self-abnegation;  no  one  of  them  ever  failed  to 
urge  the  just  precedence  of  the  individual  right,  but 
all  of  them  ask  for  a  certain  renunciation  on  the  part 
of  those  who  have,  in  the  name  of  what  might  be  called 
a  higher  egotism. 

A  universal  happiness  is  then  the  real  objective  point 
of  all  this  group.  Individual  happiness  is  the  end  and 
social  leadership  the  means.  Wherever  such  individ- 
ual happiness  is  not,  there,  in  their  idea,  social  direc- 
tion stands  convicted  of  bad  faith  or  incapacity.  The 
first  and  most  imperative  duty  of  society  is  to  secure 
social  content,^^  not  in  the  interests  of  its  own  well- 
being  nor  as  a  matter  of  expediency,  but  strictly  in  the 
performance  of  the  function  for  which  it  was  originally 
established.     Per  contra,  all  blame  for  social  discon- 

20  Least  evident  in  Proudhon. 

21  Saint  Simon's  words  express  the  general  sentiment. 
"  L'objet  capital  des  travaux  des  publieistes  doit  6tre  aujour- 
d'hui  de  fixer  les  id^es  sur  la  direction  de  prosp6rit§  et  de  la 
determiner  k  prendre  cette  direction."  CEuvres  (L'Organisa- 
teur),  XX,  p.  191. 


SOCIAL  JUSTICE.  209 

tent  necessarily  rests  upon  society.  Whatever  is  wrong 
in  the  individual  is  due  to  certain  conditions  for  which 
society  is  responsible.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  oc- 
curred to  these  socialists  as  it  does  to  many  who  read 
them,  that  the  social  significance  of  the  individual  is 
seriously  doubted  if  it  be  contended  that  society,  and 
not  the  members  of  it,  is  answerable  for  the  existing 
social  unrest,  for  the  doctrine  often  goes  the  step  far- 
ther where  the  individnal  becomes  the  victim  and  his 
personal  responsibility  for  wrong-doing  is  akin  to  that 
of  a  child  whose  parent  neglects  his  duty. 

That  the  idealistic  socialists  did  not  see  this  incon- 
sistency in  their  doctrine  is  not  surprising.  They  were 
deeply  impressed  with  two  principles  which  they  had 
not  learned  to  reconcile,  the  principle  of  association 
and  the  principle  of  individualism.  On  the  one  hand, 
most  of  them  cherished  an  ideal  of  association  resting 
on  one  form  or  another  of  the  eighteenth  century  doc- 
trine concerning  a  central  authority  and  its  power  for 
good;  on  the  other  hand,  they  all  shared  the  revolu- 
tionary respect  for  the  intrinsic  value  of  each  individ- 
ual. They  had  not  learned,  for  we  have  scarcely 
learned  yet,  how  different  are  the  benefits  deriving 
from  an  associated  effort  which  is  the  result  of  the 
voluntary  acts  of  individuals  as  compared  with  that 
which  is  enforced  by  a  central  authority  however  demo- 
cratically constituted.  Having  most  of 'them  adopted 
the  idea  of  law  as  the  more  or  less  directly  expressed 
will  of  the  majority  of  the  nation,  they  felt  secure  of 
the  state's  power  to  maintain  the  individuaFs  rights  and 
14 


210       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

constituted  without  fear  some  form  of  extreme  social 
control. 

As  to  the  duties  of  society,  since  all  the  theorists  in 
question  hold  that  the  innate  nature  of  man  is  good, 
they  logically  define  it  as  the  first  duty  of  society  in 
the  performance  of  its  function  as  director,  to  develop 
the  natural  right-mindedness  of  its  members.  Prob- 
ably all  socialistic  thought  up  to  the  present  time,  in- 
cluding the  writers  now  under  discussion,  felt  that  the 
first,  most  valuable,  social  service  was  education.  When 
by  means  of  able  and  enlightened  teachers,  there  had 
been  duly  disseminated  a  correct  appreciation  of  where 
the  evil  in  the  socialistic  organization  lay,  and  the 
young  had  been  taught  how  social  misery  might  be 
remedied,  a  valuable  and  fruitful  alteration  in  public 
morality  might,  it  was  thought,  be  expected.  Like  all 
socialistic  philosophy  that  preceded  theirs,  this  radical 
writing  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  ex- 
presses a  belief  that  the  permanence  and  reality  of  any 
reform  depended  upon  some  fundamental  change  in 
the  methods  and  subject  matter  of  education.  The  cur- 
riculum which  was  to  accomplish  the  moral  uplift 
varied  from  Saint  Simon's  idea  of  a  training  chiefly 
scientific  and  industrials^  to  that  recommended  by 
Louis  Blanc  of  a  purely  latitudinarian  nature;  but 
the  end  is  always  the  same.  The  social  regeneration 
was  to  be  worked  out  by  way  of  a  social  reconciliation 
which  education  alone  could  effect.  Through  a  true  cul- 
ture of  each  and  all  of  the  community,  the  individual 
is  to  awaken  to  the  realization  of  his  higher  self  and  to 

22  Saint  Simon's  claim  is  best  expressed  in  the  Syst^me  In- 
dustrie! (CEuvres,  XXII,  p.  215  et  seq.)  and  in  the  Parabola, 


ilDUGATton.  211 

his  larger  duties  which  include  the  preservation  of  so- 
ciety as  well  as  self-preservation. 

As  to  the  definite  evils  which  the  state  should  be 
recommended  to  do  away  with,  there  is  of  course  a  di- 
vergence of  opinion.  One  social  institution,  however, 
comes  under  the  ban  now,  as  it  always  has  come  under 
the  ban  of  him  who  seeks  a  cure-all  for  social  misery. 
There  arises  again  in  this  early  nineteenth  century  doc- 
trine, the  old  question  as  to  the  merits  of  the  institution 
of  property.  These  early  socialists  continue  to  regard 
it  as  inimical  to  social  contentment.  The  relation  of 
the  sexes,  the  family  and  family  life,  the  commercial 
relations  of  individuals,  and  religious  creeds  are  all 
differently  regarded  and  all  or  some  one  of  these  social 
interests  are  likewise  assailed;  but  howsoever  the  other 
Bocial  facts  are  looked  upon,  there  is  always  some  ob- 
jection to  property-forms.  The  socialistic  movement 
of  our  time  has  this  in  common  with  all  Utopian  and 
communistic  movements  that  go  before;  it  has  as  a 
basis  for  active  reform  some  scheme  to  alter  the  social 
creed  concerning  property.  Each  movement  led  by 
some  one  of  the  French  idealistic  group  was  primarily 
an  effort  to  solve  the  problem  of  alimentation  by  some 
arbitrary  separation  of  the  individual  from  the  soil. 
The  old  tone  which  ascribes  every  moral  and  physical 
evil  to  facts  of  property-holding  is  not  entirely  gone; 
there  are  still  echoes,  more  or  less  conscious,  of  the  bit- 
ter cries  of  the  Mesliers  and  Morellys  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  on  the  whole,  the  nineteenth  century  has 
Been  socialistic  theory  leave  mere  moralistic  complain- 
ing about  the  evil  effects  of  a  wrong  interpretation  of 


212  MODEm  FRENCH  SOCIALISM, 

the  relation  between  the  individual  and  the  sources  of 
production.  Ethical  objections  to  property  fall  into 
the  background.  Property  is  now  most  often  defined 
as  a  political  abuse.  Personal  control  of  productive 
property  is  now  as  it  has  always  been  by  this  class  of 
radicals,  criticised  because  it  is  held  that  such  control 
interferes  in  a  specific  way  with  the  largest  possible  en- 
joyment, but  the  attack  upon  private  property  is  now 
more  specifically  an  attack  upon  private  ownership  of 
the  sources  and  means  of  production.  The  objection 
to  all  forms  of  personal  property  gives  way  to  a  criti- 
cism of  the  prevailing  methods  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution,^*  and  that  criticism  ends  in  the  doctrine  that 
nothing  better  than  the  present  social  order  can  be  ex- 

23-24  Proudhon,  despite  his  "  property  is  robbery  ",  is  less  of 
an  exception  to  this  conclusion  than  is  generally  supposed. 
The  bitterness  and  unqualified  character  of  Proudhon's  attack 
upon  property  make  him  in  seeming  the  most  positive  op- 
ponent of  the  institution  of  property  in  whatsoever  form,  but 
even  he  admits  that  "  the  right  to  product  is  exclusive ;  the 
right  to  means  is  common."  (Qu'est  ce  que  la  Propri§t6? 
1st  memoir,  p.  107,  Eng.  ed.).  Though  Louis  Blanc  held  to 
the  Revolutionary  idea  of  '93,  and  so  contended  that  the  right 
of  each  was  subordinate  to  the  right  of  the  community  to 
everything  (comp.  Histoire  de  Dix  Ans,  II,  pp.  173,  181, 
182  [foot-note] ) ,  yet  he  never  thought  of  acknowledging  an 
equality  which  checked  the  personal  appropriation  of.  con- 
sumption property.  Saint  Simon  and  Fourier  posited  pro- 
ductive property  in  the  hands  of  society,  but  undoubtedly  ad- 
mitted personal  property.  (Comp.  St.  Simon.  (EuTres 
(L'Industrie),  XIX,  pp.  82-89.  ^Fourier,  Pecquer  and  Vidal 
clearly  distinguished  that  it  was  only  such  collective  capital 
as  could  be  used  collectively  that  ought  to  be  collective  hold- 
ing. (See  Pecquer,  Th^orie  Nouvelle,  pp.  554,  555;  Vidal, 
De  la  repartition  des  richesse,  pp.  390  et  seq.,  cited  in  Michel.) 
In  one  form  or  another  with  varying  insistence  as  the  sub- 
ject formed  a  major  part  of  their  theory,  all  of  the  early  so- 
cialists held  the  control  of  productive  property  to  be  the  real 
objective   point  of   state  administration.     Babeuf,   of   course, 


PRODUCTIVE  PROPERTY  ATTACKED.  213 

pected  until  all  productive  property  is  held  collectively 
and  is  subject  to  state  control.  In  fine,  it  may  be  said 
that,  in  relation  to  property,  the  idealistic  school  does 
hot  exactly  desire  its  elimination.  Bather,  the  purpose 
is  to  redistribute  private  property,  reserving  always  the 
final  direction  of  it  to  society,  that  is,  to  the  sum  of  the 
individual  wills  of  the  community.  To  effect  such  a 
redistribution  as  soon  as  possible  is  the  very  essence  of 
their  reform  movement. 

In  brief  summary  then,  the  interests  of  these  early 
French  Socialists,  as  of  all  socialists  at  any  time,  cen- 
ter about  the  affairs  of  this  world  rather  than  those  of 
another,  in  most  cases  exclusively,  in  all  cases  at  least 
chiefly.  As  to  this  world,  the  group  under  discussion 
are  emphatically  certain  that  it  is  possible  for  every 
individual  to  be  happy  here  on  earth  and  that  strife 
can  and  will  ultimately  disappear  from  all  social  rela- 
tions. Finally,  without  exception,  these  men  rest  their 
hope  for  the  consummation  of  their  ideals  upon  the 
efficacy  of  social  control  and  contend  that  a  social  guar- 
antee of  well-being  to  each  individual  is  the  first  law 
of  social  organization.  The  means  to  bring  about  the 
desired  social  content  and  the  way  to  maintain  it  when 
secured,  is  in  general  held  to  be  a  liberal  education 
which  an  enlightened  society  can  and  should  furnish 
to  its  members.  The  prevailing  social  order  is  usually 
called  a  glaring  error,^  and  the  fundamental  miscon- 

counts   property  as  the  key  to   social   and  individual  misery 
and  looks  to  government  to  do  away   first  of  all   with   this 
"  curse  of  society."      ( Comp.  art.  6  of  the  "  Declaration  des 
Principes.") 
<^  Saint  Simon  of  course  excepted. 


214  MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

ception  is  said  to  be  the  theory  concerning  private 
property.  All  social  morality  in  any  absolute  sense  of 
the  word  is  made  to  depend  upon  the  final  eradication 
of  the  present  property  laws  from  the  social  scheme. 
It  is  in  the  plans  that  they  offer  for  a  redistribution  of 
property  that  the  doctrines  of  these  men  take  on  a 
really  distinctive  character,  for  their  doctrines  have 
a  distinctive  character.  The  early  French  socialists 
did  more  than  repeat,  with  certain  variations,  senti- 
ments which  have  been  those  of  the  socialistic  tem- 
perament at  all  periods  of  history.  They  ingrafted 
beside  upon  socialistic  thought  some  theories  new  to 
it,  and  these  represent  their  real  contribution  to  later 
socialistic  thinking. 

in. 

First  among  such  characteristics  is  the  well-defined 
intention  already  suggested  to  leave  speculative  moral 
philosophy  and  to  create  a  social  and  political  move- 
ment. Earlier  writers  show  a  tendency  to  cope  with 
reality,  but  it  is  rarely  more  than  a  tendency.  Not  until 
the  E evolution  was  past  did  the  influence  of  the  new 
hopeful  spirit  become  strong  en^gh  directly  to  affect 
socialistic  theory.  The  undoubted  share  of  the  Eevolu- 
tion  in  working  this  change  in  socialistic  doctrine  needs 
no  accent.  The  dramatic  incidents  of  the  Eevolution 
and  the  swift  sweep  of  its  many  changes  has  been  the 
inspiration  for  many  revolutionary  socialistic  move- 
ments since  they  created  the  "  Conspiration  de8 
Egaux.^'  Babeuf  was  only  the  first  among  many  whom 
the  Eevolution  has  tempted  to  dream  of  a  radical  and 


PRACTICAL  AIM.  215 

instantaneous  social  reorganization.  lie  was  first  to 
bring  into  the  theory  of  social  reform  that  note  of  prac- 
ticability which  is  so  distinguishing  a  mark  of  the  mod- 
ern doctrine;  he  abandons  moralizing  for  action  and 
leaves  the  idea  of  communal  experiment  for  that  of 
national  reorganization.  Babeuf  lived  during  the  Eev- 
olution.  Thus  it  is  the  beginning  of  the  century  which 
marks  the  socialist's  transition  from  the  philosopher's 
study  to  the  uneasy  and  stirring  life  of  the  politician. 
The  writers  here  in  question  were  idealists  because  they 
worked  from  somewhat  fixed  preconceptions,  called  the 
received  social  order  an  error,  and  carefully  defined  that 
which  the  future  ought  to  develop.  They  were  how- 
ever, less  idealistic  than  the  radical  writers  who  had 
preceded  them,  for  every  one  of  them  was  bent  on  ac- 
complishing practical  results.  Unlike  most  of  the 
eighteenth  century  writers,  each  of  these  men  acted 
as  well  as  wrote;  most  of  them  tried  to  take  an  active 
part  in  the  political  and  social  life  of  the  nation.  All 
the  French  socialistic  theory  of  the  first  part  of 
the  century  is  in  the  end  of  proving  not  only  that 
a  social  reform  is  needed,  but  that  a  given  social  reform 
can  and  should  be  carried  out  immediately.  With  the 
incoming  of  the  present  century,  the  kind  of  specula- 
tion now  in  question  seems,  in  its  dominant  form  at 
least,  to  be  definitely  passing  from  that  type  which  lays 
the  whole  stress  upon  the  ultimate  end  and  altogether 
neglects  the  means,  to  become  the  type  of  an  opposite 
character  where  the  means  are  of  first  importance 
though  the  end  continues  to  be  carefully  outlined.  The 
early  French  socialists  were  one  and  all  firmly  con- 


216       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

vinced  that  they  had  found  an  entirely  practicable 
short  cut  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  evil,  and 
they  were  eagerly  bent  upon  leading  humanity  at  once 
along  their  newly-discovered  road. 

There  is  another  fact  evidently  distinctive  of  the 
whole  group.  Their  doctrine  as  we  get  it  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  seeks  to  prove  its  case,  not  by  abstract 
reasoning,  but  by  at  least  a  pretense  at  scientific  meth- 
ods. All  the  writers  here  taken  into  account  claim 
that  the  principles  they  lay  down  are  derived  from  a 
study  of  terrestrial  conditions  rather  than  from  the  dic- 
tates of  their  inner  consciousness.  The  influence  of 
the  century  of  scientific  beginnings  which  lay  behind 
them  is  plainly  evident.  It  has  now  become  at  least 
the  aim,  even  though  not  yet  in  reality  the  practice,  to 
count  as  valid  only  such  conclusions  as  were  derived 
from  the  study  of  the  facts  of  Nature,  of  history,  and 
of  the  character  of  man.  Though  this  last  is  taken 
into  account  least  of  all,  though  the  variations  of  race 
and  the  facts  of  historical  development  are  really  much 
neglected,  yet  in  a  way,  the  philosophers  who,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  seeking 
to  reform  the  association  of  men,  did  get  beyond  the 
philosophical  generalizations  which  had  satisfied  their 
predecessors.  In  all  the  thinking  under  discussion, 
practice  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  the  phrase 
runs,  "  from  the  real  to  the  ideal.'^  These  early  social- 
ists seek  to  prove  that  the  philosophical  doctrine  they 
advance  is  not  mere  abstract  reasoning,  not  the  dictates 
of  the  moral  sense  alone,  but  is  above  all  a  demonstra- 
ble, positive  doctrine  derived  from  a  just  analysis  of  the 


SCIENTIFIC  METHOD.  ^17 

physical  and  mental  traits  of  men  and  a  careful  appre- 
ciation of  causal  social  data. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  scientific  method  for 
which  so  much  was  claimed,  was  on  the  whole,  mere 
pretension.  N'o  one  of  these  writers  really  held  to  a 
scientific  method,  though  all  alike  coquetted  with  the 
idea  of  so  doing.  Any  one  of  them  argued  his  propo- 
sitions from  the  facts  of  society  and  then  coordinated 
his  data  with  a  show  of  scientific  accuracy,  but  when 
they  went  to  collect  these  facts,  one  and  all  really  de- 
gired  to  prove  preconceptions.  Every  one  of  the  group 
was  looking  for  evidence  to  support  theories  which  the 
temperament  of  each  had  led  him  to  adopt;  no  one  of 
them  has  a  real  claim  to  be  classified  as  a  scientific  stu- 
dent of  social  progress. 

Saint  Simon^^  comes  nearest  to  being  really  scien- 
tific. At  the  hands  of  his  school,  the  doctrine  of  this 
remarkable  man  underwent  modifications  so  radical 
that  the  original  doctrine  is  not  always  rightly  under- 
stood. The  Saint  Simonians,  more  particularly  d'En- 
fantin  and  his  section,  introduced  into  the  doctrine 
Saint  Simon  bequeathed  to  them,  a  sensual  and  human- 
itarian communism  of  which  there  is  little  or  no  trace 
in  the  master's  work.  There  is  no  communism  in  Saint 
Simon  —  on  the  contrary,  there  is  a  very  decided  social- 
ism; there  is  little  humanitarianism,  rather  an  uncer- 
tain deism.     There  is  none  of  the  passional  and  evan- 

26  On  Saint  Simon,  see  in  addition  to  general  studies,  Janet. 
St.  Simon  et  St.  Simonisme;  Booth,  St.  Simon  and  the  St. 
Simonians;  Michel,  L'ld^^e  de  L'Etat,  pp.  172-212;  Reybaud, 
Les  R^formateurs  contemporains,  I,  and  an  interesting  chap- 
ter in  Louis  Blanc's  Histoire  de  Dix  Ans. 


^j,g  MODERN  FRMCH   SOCIALISM. 

gelical  character  which  the  Saint  Simonians  gave  to 
his  doctrine,  but  instead,  the  philosophy  of  Saint  Simon 
is  an  attempt  to  apply  to  social  conditions,  philosophi- 
cal deductions  which  their  author  claimed  to  have  veri- 
fied by  data  collected  dispassionately.^''^  Little  as  he 
succeeded  in  his  aim,  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  Saint 
Simon  set  out  to  employ  scientific  method  in  carrying 
out  the  task  he  set  himself,  the  task  of  finding  a  solu- 
tion to  the  problem  of  social  organization.  When  mod- 
ern socialism  works  on  scientific  lines,  it  only  follows 
the  route  which  Saint  Simon  never  wearied  of  indi- 
cating as  the  only  road  to  truth. 

Out  of  this  tentative  use  of  the  scientific  method 
much  that  is  radically  new  comes  into  the  theory  of 
the  writers  now  under  discussion.  First  of  all,  the 
group  adopts  the  conception  of  movement  in  history. 
The  idea  of  progress,  deduced  from  that  scientific  view 
of  history  which  was  slowly  coming  to  regard  the  life 
of  men  and  of  societies  as  a  process,  comes  to  be  an  ac- 
cepted doctrine  with  them.  Man  is  no  longer  regarded 
as  perfect  nor  yet  as  fallen  from  perfection,  but  as  de- 
veloping toward  an  individual  perfection  which  is  the 
whole  end  of  existence. 

The  idea  of  social  progress  was  elaborated  though  not 
originated  by  one  of  the  socialists  under  discussion.    He 

27  He  says  of  his  system  (CEuvres,  Nouveau  Christianisme, 
XXIII,  p.  175)  that  "il  se  trouve  appuyg  maintenant  a  la 
fois  sur  des  considerations  philosophiques  de  I'ordre  des  sci- 
ences, des  beaux-arts  et  de  I'industrie,  et  sur  le  sentiment 
religieux  repandu  dans  le  monde  civilis§."  He  calls  it  *'  un 
resultat  forc6  de  la  marche  que  civilization  a  suivie  depuis 
sept  a  huit  siScles;  compare  also  (Euvres  ( L'Organisateur ) , 
XX,  p.  63. 


IDEA   OF  SOCIAL  PROGRESS.  219 

adopted  and  adapted  to  his  principles,  the  theory  that 
Voltaire  dimly  saw,  that  Turgot  and  Condorcet  clearly 
announced,  the  theory  that  the  mental  and  moral 
growth  of  society  underlies  and  in  a  sense  originates 
its  outward  expression  in  institutions.  It  was  Saint 
Simon^  who  first  developed  the  idea  to  which  Auguste 
Comte  afterwards  gave  such  additional  force,  the  idea 
that  there  was  social  progress  and  that  such  progress  is 
by  way  of  stages,  alternately  negative  and  positive. 

In  fact,  what  is  now  called  the  materialistic  doctrine 
of  history  is  all  but  completed  by  Saint  Simon. 
The  idea  that  all  forward  movement  of  society  is  by 
way  of  alternate  negative  and  positive  periods,  and  that 
each  social  system  holds  in  itself  the  germ  of  another,^ 
the  decay  of  the  one  system  keeping  pace  with  the 
growth  of  the  other,  all  this  is  very  definitely  set  forth 
by  Saint  Simon.  It  is  Saint  Simon  who  explains  and 
even  elaborates  the  principle  that  history  is  in  spite  of 
man's  will,  not  a  result  of  it;^^  that  the  course  of  his- 
tory is  a  process  of  necessary  social  growth  ;3^  that  so- 
cial growth  rests  upon  a  development  of  the  physical 
and  mental  faculties  of  man  in  a  process  where  the  ma- 
ss Saint  Simon  can  in  fact  hardly  be  called  an  idealistic 
socialist  if  the  word  idealistic  be  given  the  meaning  which 
socialists  now  usually  attach  to  it,  if  it  be  taken  to  mean  one 
who  appealed  from  a  social  order  which  he  considered  an  er- 
ror to  another  which  his  moral  sense  told  him  was  better. 
The  really  original  part  of  Saint  Simon's  doctrine  is  neither 
idealistic  nor  communistic;  it  is  socialistic  in  a  modern  sense. 
29(Euvres  (L'Organisateur),  XX,  p.  80;  also  (Euvres 
(L'Industrie),  XIX,  pp.  22-27. 

30  Comp.  Du  syst^me  Industrial  in  (Euvres,  XXI,  pp.  87,  88. 

31  See  (Euvres  (L'Organisateur)  Vol.  XX,  p.  73. 


220       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

terial  development  underlies  the  mental,^^  although  the 
quality  of  the  mental  development  determines  the  stage 
of  social  growth.^^  This  is  certainly  the  later  doctrine 
as  the  more  distinctively  French  branch  of  the  present 
socialism  in  France  now  advances  it;  it  only  needs  to 
put  some  more  dialectic  into  it  and  make  economic  con- 
ditions causal  to  all  other  institutions  in  order  for  it  to 
be  the  Marxian  theory  of  social  growth.  When  all  that 
he  has  written  is  considered,  it  seems  right  to  believe 
that  Saint  Simon  held  to  the  theory  that  the  social 
movement  has  a  moral  end  and  moves  forward  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  psychological  development  of  man,^* 
but  he  can  be  found  asserting,  as  Marxian  socialism 
does,  that  the  initiative  force  in  social  progress  is  not 
the  individual,  but  "  the  law  of  progress."^^    The  theory 

32  See  (Euvres  ( L'Organisateur ) ,  XX,  p.  192.  "On  ne 
saurait  trop  le  r^pgter,  il  n'y  a  d'action  utile  €xerc6e  par 
I'homme  que  celle  de  I'homme  sur  les  choses.  L'action  de 
I'homme   sur   I'homme   est   toujours    nuisible  ^    I'esp^ce,"  etc. 

33CEuvres  (L'Organisateur),  "XX,  p.  182;  also  (Euvres  (L'ln- 
dustrie),  XIX,  p.  23.  "Que  tout  regime  social  est  une  ap- 
plication d'un  syst^me  et  que,  par  consequent,  il  est  impossible 
d'instituer  un  regime  nouveau,  sans  avoir  auparavant  §tabli 
le  nouveau  syst^me  philosophique  auquel  il  doit  correspondre." 

34  (Euvres  (I/Industrie),  XIX,  p.  30.  "La  politique  n*est 
autre  chose  que  la  science  de  celle  entre  ces  r&gles  de  la  morale 
qui  sont  assez  importantes  pour  qu'il  soit  utile  de  les  or- 
ganizer et  en  m6me  temps  assez  claires,  assez  universellement 
adoptees,  pour  que  I'organisation  en  soit  possible." 

35 "  La  loi  sup^rieure  des  progr^s  de  Vesprit  humain  en- 
traine  et  domine  tout;  les  hommes  ne  sont  pour  elle  que  des 
instruments.  Quoique  cette  force  derive  de  nous,  il  n'est  pas 
plus  en  notre  pouvoir  de  nous  soustraire  il  son  influence  ou 
de  maitriser  son  action  que  de  changer  a  notre  gr§,  I'impulsion 
primitive  qui  fait  circuler  notre  plan^te  autour  du  soleil." 
(Euvres  (L'Organisateur),  XX,  p.  119;  also,  in  (Euvres  (Du 
Syst^me  Industriel),  XXII,  pp.  226-237.  "II  n'y  a  qu'une 
impulsion  a  donner;  le  reste  I'effectuera  de  soi-mSme  par  la 
seule  force  des  choses/* 


IDEA   OF  SOCIAL  PROGRESS.  ^^1 

of  Saint  Simon  does  not  merge  the  individual  into 
society,  but  it  reduces  the  opposition  between  the  two 
to  a  minimum  and  puts  the  responsibility  for  individual 
development  upon  the  social  organization.  The  Saint 
Simonian  interpretation  of  history  not  only  set  moving 
most  of  those  "  positivist  '^  and  "  scientific  "  interpreta- 
tions of  history  which  men  not  socialists,  offer  as  phi- 
losophies of  history  at  the  present  day;  it  was  the  in- 
spiration to  the  modern  socialistic  arguments  for  a 
social  reorganization  which  should  insure  individual 
happiness. 

It  is  Saint  Simon  who  first  points  out  that  social  re- 
generation is  being  prepared  by  a  painful  negative 
period, —  it  is  thus  he  calls  his  own  time, —  a  period 
wherein  the  principle  of  growth  is  antagonism.^^  The 
others  took  up  the  idea  but  in  the  spirit  of  criticism, 
not  of  analysis,  declaring  the  period  of  antagonism  in 
which  they  lived  to  be  one  peculiarly  unfortunate  and 
unnecessary.  They  pronounce  against  it  because  of 
what  their  moral  sense  tells  them.  Though  most  of 
them  adopt  the  terminology  of  Saint  Simon^"^  thev  do 
not  use  his  more  dispassionate  method. 

This  notion  of  a  social  evolution  where  struggle  is 
the  basis  of  all  movement,  was  however  sharply  marked 
off  from  the  theory  of  the  later  half  of  the  century,  by 
the  fact  that  each  of  the  writers  under  discussion,  Pec- 
quer  and  Yidal  possibly  excepted,  looked  to  a  system 

36CEuvref3.  (Du  Syst^me  Industrie! ),  XXTI,  pp.  60  et  seq.) 
37Comp.  Fourier.  Theories  des  Quatre  Mouvements,  p.  94 
(cited  in  Michel,  op.  cit.,  p.  382)  ;  Louis  Blanc  means  the 
same  thing  when  he  says,  "Trois  grands  principles  se  par- 
tagent  le  monde  et  I'histoire;  l*autorit§,  I'individualisme  et  la 
fraternite,"  etc.    Comp.  Revolution  frangaise,  I,  p.  9. 


222       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

which  he  proposed,  as  a  means  to  terminate  finally  the 
unfortunate  disharmony  which  separated  men  and  stim- 
ulated their  worst  impulses.  In  this,  the  idealistic 
character  of  the  school  shows  itself.  Unconsciously 
or  consciously.  Saint  Simon,  Proudhon  or  any  of  the 
other  writers  in  question,  dreamed  of  an  end  to  social 
disharmony,  a  social  equilibrium  secured  by  the  meas- 
ure they  so  ardently  worked  for. 

The  adoption  of  the  idea  of  progress  led  to  the  doc- 
trine which  refused  to  believe  in  simple  life  as  means 
to  happiness.  On  the  contrary,  these  reformers  all  de- 
clared for  a  highly  organized  society^^  as  the  best 
means  for  individual  development  and  content.  Saint 
Simon  says  first,  and  all  the  others  may  be  found  say- 
ing or  implying  the  same  thing,  that  the  true  economy 
of  a  state  "  does  not  consist  in  spending  little,  but  in 
spending  well.^'^^  It  was  decided  early  that  all  progress 
rests  upon  industrial  progress,  and  so  the  economic  con- 
ditions of  the  present  society — conditions  which  did  not 
seem  to  them  to  insure  such  progress, —  became  the  real 
subject  of  attack.  It  is  since  the  beginning  of  the  cen- 
tury that  the  industrial  side  of  civilization  becomes  the 
central  point  of  discussion  for  socialists.  Saint  Simon 
was  only  the  first  who  put  all  his  faith  in  the  power  of 
science  socially  expressed  as  Industrialism,  to  banish 
the  present  unrest;  the  others  took  up  and  urged  a  like 
claim.    He  is  first  to  state  with  precision  that  only  a  new 

38  Fourier,  it  is  true,  scorned  civilization  as  he  interpreted 
the  word,  but  the  "  garantisme "  ( see  Th6orie  des  Quatre 
Mouvements),  which  he  wished  to  substitute,  was  a  more  com- 
plex social  order,  and  thus  corresponds  to  our  idea  of  ciyiliza- 
tion,  which  covers  everything  not  primitive  life. 

39  Saint  Simon.    (Euvres  (Syst^me  Industrial),  XXII,  p.  171. 


IDEA   OF  SOCIAL  PROGRESS.  223 

economic  arrangement  of  society  can  work  improve- 
ment in  deplorable  conditions,  but  afterwards  all  the 
others  are  as  specific  concerning  the  causes  of  the  social 
evils.  It  is  with  these  men  that  things  not  men  become 
the  object  of  reproach.^^  While  all,  from  Saint  Simon 
to  Blanc,  look  on  property  as  the  key-stone  to  the  qual- 
ity and  strength  of  the  social  structure,  they  yet  have 
in  mind  that  kind  of  property  which  is  used  as  a  factor 
in  production.  All  are  of  Saint  Simon's  opinion  that 
exploitation  of  the  globe  by  associated  effort  is  the  only 
true  means  to  the  fullest  physical  and  mental  develop- 
ment. In  fact,  the  works  of  two  of  these  writers,  Pec- 
quer  and  Vidal,*^  are  little  more  than  a  critical  discus- 
sion of  this  one  question.  Both  Pecquer  and  Vidal 
discuss  only  the  current  economic  doctrines  regarding 
industry;  they  are  solely  concerned  with  what  they  re- 
gard as  the  mistaken  ideas  regarding  the  methods  of 
production  and  distribution;  they  are  chiefly  interested 
in  pointing  the  weakness  of  the  "  laissez-faire  '^  doc- 
trine. They  make  the  same  distinction  between  the 
capitalist  and  Capital  which  the  latest  socialists  do,  and 
expatiate  upon  the  value  of  the  one  and  the  uselessness 
of  the  other.  In  order  that  theirs  should  be  the  doc- 
trine of  the  latest  French  socialism,  there  is  nothing 
lacking  to  their  arguments  concerning  the  capitalist 
except  the  idea  of  historical  movement  which  makes 
the  present  theory  regard  him  as  transitional,  a  medium 
to  the  time  when  a  general  association  of  workers  shall 

^oComp.  Louis  Blanc.  "The  fault  is  not  in  men,  but  in 
things."    History  of  Ten  Years,  IT,  p.  652.     (Ensf.  edition.) 

41  On  Peequer,  see  Michel,  op.  cit.,  pp.  242-245 ;  also,  Malon, 
Precis  de  Socialisme,  ch.  xi.  On  Vidal,  comp.  Michel,  op. 
cit.  pp,  245-248 ;  also,  Malon,  op,  cit,,  ch.  xi. 


224  MODEM  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

control  capital.  Though  they  ask  for  this  associated 
production  in  the  name  of  a  moral  claim  rather  than  as 
an  historical  necessity,  Pecquer  and  Vidal  make  a  spe- 
cific demand  for  a  government  which  shall  control  in- 
dustrial operations,  and  thus  kill  forever  all  competi- 
tive production. 

As  sequel  to  this  point  of  view  regarding  the  cause 
of  present  discontent,  class  lines  are  now  drawn  not 
according  to  status  but  according  to  possession.  Differ- 
ences between  men  are  attributed  to  badly-adjusted 
industrial  relations.^  All  that  later  theory  has  defined 
concerning  the  theory  of  class-struggle  is  noted  and 
accented,  though  not  so  logically  stated,  by  each  of  these 
theorists.  For  Saint  Simon,  the  classes  are  the  pro- 
ducers and  the  non-producers  ;*3  Proudhon**  has  found 
the  modern  terms  of  proletaire  and  the  bourgeois; 
Louis  Blanc's  "  peuple  ^'^  is  only  another  word  for  pro- 
letaire, and  his  "  bourgeoisie  '^  is  an  economically  as 
well  as  a  politically  triumphant  class. 

The  result  of  this  insistent  criticism  of  the  industrial 
organization  and  of  industrial  methods  is  an  attack 
upon  the  art  of  government  as  taught  by  the  control- 
ling economic  theory.  Government  methods  because 
they  omit  to  take  account  of  and  to  control  the  indus- 

42Proudhon's  statement  is  typical.  He  defines  the  Revolu- 
tion as  "  the  substitution  of  real  right  for  personal  right ;  that 
is  to  say,  in  the  days  of  feudalism,  the  value  of  property  de- 
pended upon  the  standing  of  the  proprietor,  while,  after  the 
Revolution,  the  regard  for  the  man  was  proportional  to  his 
property."  Comp.  What  is  property?  Second  Mem.,  p.  357. 
(Eng.  ed.,  Tuckerman.) 

43CEuvres    (L'lndustrie),  XIX,  p.  74. 

44  Contradictions  des  svst^mes  economiques,  passim. 

45  History  of  Ten  Years,  II,  p.  648. 


INDUSTRIAL   ORGANIZATION   VRITIVHSED.     225 

trial  operations  of  every  member  of  society*^  are  held 
to  be  wrong  and  unsuccessful.  What  is  specifically  at- 
tacked is  the  doctrine  of  non-interference;  free  compe- 
tition gets  no  quarter.  It  is  held  to  be  responsible  for 
all  the  moral  and  material  misery  of  society.  Having 
laid  it  down  repeatedly  that  society  depends  for  its 
progress  on  the  greatest  possible  production,  competi- 
tion is  shown  to  check  such  production.  It  is 
argued  that  social  contentment  depends  upon  bring- 
ing the  physical  and  mental  powers  of  each  unit  of 
society  into  the  best  possible  relation  to  nature  and  to 
each  other.  No  one  intellect,  it  is  said  can  find  the 
way  if  left  free,  and  unguided  by  anything  but  the  in- 
stinct of  self-preservation;  the  united  ingenuity  of  the 
most  developed  members  of  society  is  needed  for  ef- 
fective leadership.  Therefore,  instead  of  that  combat 
of  individual  interests  which  the  doctrine  holds  compe- 
tition to  be,  a  social  consensus  of  opinion  is  asked  for 
as  the  first  requisite  to  intelligent  and  successful  pro- 
duction. Thus  the  principle  of  association  is  opposed 
to  that  of  competition.  On  the  other  hand,  the  doc- 
trine exalts  socially-conducted  industry  where  division 
of  labor  recognizes  special  capacity  in  each  member  of 
the  community  and  gives  to  each  capacity  its  best  op- 
portunity; on  the  other,  it  execrates  an  industrial  or- 
ganization where  industry  has  a  false  relation  to  the 

46X0  special  citations  seem  requisite  here.  It  will  only  be 
necessary  to  turn  over  the  pages  of  Saint  Simon's  "  Syatftme 
Tndustrielle,"  Fourier's  "  Th^orie  des  Quatre  Mouvements," 
Proudhon's  "  Syst&mes  des  Contradictions  Economiques "  or 
Blanc's  "  Questions  d'aujourd'hui  et  de  demain "  in  order  to 
find  ample  verification  of  the  above  statements. 

15 


226       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

state  because  it  is  free  from  state  interference  instead 
of  being  the  first  and  most  important  subject  of  the 
laws. 

The  essence  of  the  special  theory  these  thinkers  rep- 
resent is  involved  in  this  doctrine  of  association.  It 
is  the  root  principle  of  their  constructive  theory  that 
men  are  to  associate  themselves  together  if  they  would 
attain  their  best  development.  Theirs  is  not  yet  the 
theory  later  developed  which  holds  all  men  to  be  parts 
of  a  great  social  organism  and  believes  that  immutable 
laws  make  it  necessary  that  they  work  together  in  some 
cooperative  way.**^  The  theory  they  advance  is  rather 
that  individualistic  one  which  takes  society  to  be  the 
aggregate  of  all  the  individuals  who  compose  it  and, 
making  the  wants  of  these  individuals  the  final  gauge 
of  social  progress,  declares  that  men  are  to  associate  in 
order  to  the  best  possible  industrial  activity.  As  a  re- 
sult of  associated  effort  they  look  to  see  the  needs  of  all 
the  community  satisfied  and  the  best  and  most  general 
could,  by  some  sort  of  association,  get  the  fullest  oppor- 
development  assured.  It  is  argued  that  if  the  majority 
tunity  to  labor,  a  large  product  would  insure  a  larger 
enjoyment  and  thus  the  desired  end,  the  most  universal 
happiness,  would  be  obtained.  It  is  further  argued 
that  it  is  absurd  to  think  that  the  wants  of  the  whole 
community  could  not  be  supplied.  Every  one  of  these 
socialists  plans  some  kind  of  organization  by  which  all 
society  shall  become  a  cooperating  army  of  laborers, 
and  each  one  believes  that,  if  realized,  the  organization 
he  suggests  would  make  it  perfectly  possible  to  supply 
all  needs.     In  every  case,  whatever  the  detail  of  the 

47  The  exception  of  Buchez  and  Leroux  has  been  noted. 


INDUSTRIAL   ORGANIZATION   CRITICISED.    227 

plan,  two  general  changes  are  urged;  labor  must  be 
properly  respected  and  the  whole  social  body  must  con- 
trol all  labor. 

It  is  claimed  that,  under  any  of  the  industrial  or- 
ganizations which  these  early  socialists  propose,  the  po- 
sition of  labor  would  be  no  longer  the  ignoble  role  it 
plays  under  the  competitive  system.  From  Babeuf  to 
Louis  Blanc,  the  doctrine  of  the  right  to  labor  and  of 
the  duty  of  the  state  to  enforce  such  a  right  was  more 
and  more  positively  put  forward,  and  labor  of  body  and 
mind  is  exalted  as  the  developing  force.  As  has  been 
said,  any  one  of  the  theories  sharply  divides  society  into 
two  classes,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  where  the  poor 
means  the  laboring-class,  and  all  of  dignity  and  worth 
is  attached  to  the  workers.  Their  misery  and  depriva- 
tion  is  a  constant  theme  for  pity  and  sympathy,  but 
they  have  meanwhile  the  supreme  respect  of  these  so- 
cialists who  are  confident  that  social  salvation  will  come 
through  their  efforts."*®  Hearts  go  out  to  the  poor  in 
this  period  just  as  they  did  in  Rousseau's  time,  but, 
since  these  later  writers  scoffed  at  returning  to  a  sim- 
ple life,  they  see  other  ways  than  those  suggested  by 
Rousseau  for  diminishing  the  miseries  of  persons  they 
pity.  Two  things  are  pointed  out  as  at  present  inter- 
fering \Nqth  the  happiness  of  the  poor.  In  the  first 
place,  the  odium  which  attaches  to  labor,  and  in  the 
second  place,  the  lack  of  a  proper  return  to  that  labor. 
The  remedy  for  both  evils  is  always  held  to  lie  in  makr 
ing  every  one  labor.     In  that  way,  the  odium  which 

48  Compare  Saint  Simon.  Addressing  the  "  Industriels," 
he  says,  "  Sans  doiite,  messieurs,  les  forces  temporelles  et 
permanente  de  la  sociC't^  resident  en  voiis,  iiniquement  en 
V0U8."    CEuvres  (Syst&me  Industrial),  XXII,  p.  16. 


228  MODERN  FREJ^OH  SOCIALISM. 

now  attaches  to  all  industrial  pursuits  would  disappear 
and,  as  all  the  available  productive  force  of  the  com- 
munity is  gradually  made  use  of,  a  proper  production 
would  insure  enough  to  make  a  satisfactory  distribution. 

What  is  urged  in  relation  to  the  working  class  is  an 
argument  at  once  moralistic  and  utilitarian.  On  the 
one  hand,  it  is  claimed  that  it  is  society's  undoubted 
duty  to  see  that  all  the  community  are  occupied  in  in- 
dustry; it  is,  on  the  other  hand,  suggested  that  it  is 
also  expedient  that  all  should  be  so  employed.  The 
poor,  when  employed,  will  be  lifted  from  their  enforced 
and  at  present  inevitable  degradation;  the  poor,  if  em- 
ployed, will  be  able  to  add  to  every  one's  enjoyment  as 
well  as  to  their  own  and  all  will  be  enabled  to  satisfy 
wants  that  need  not  be  limited.  It  is  expected  that, 
if  the  state,  controlling  industrial  operations,  shall  en- 
force the  substitution  of  the  associated  effort  of  the  en- 
tire community  for  competitive  labor,  the  shame  and 
the  burden  of  the  poverty-stricken  will  disappear.  The 
laborer  is  held  to  be  the  real  means  to  economic  ad- 
vancement and  so  the  actual  savior  of  society.  Thus 
these  early  socialists  begin  that  earnest  fight  for  the 
position  of  the  laborer,  that  eager  claim  for  the  right 
and  dignity  of  the  proletariat  which  is  the  most  notable 
characteristic  of  the  later  movement. 

The  details  concerning  the  way  in  which  the  state 
shall  conduct  industry  differ,  but  the  general  plan  of 
political  organization  is  about  the  same  in  all  the  theo- 
ries. The  principles  of  democracy  are  so  universally 
adopted  that  they  are  usually  treated  as  though  a:^i- 
omatic.     All  the  plans  ask  for  some  kind  of  social  re- 


INDUSTRIAL   ORGANIZATION   CRITICISED.    £29 

organization  on  an  economic  basis;  all  except  the 
plans  of  Saint  Simon,  nay  even  his  at  times,  as  for 
political  decentralization  and  a  highly  centralized 
industrial  system.  Saint  Simon  with  his  strong  his- 
toric sense,  leaned  to  entirely  centralized  methods  of 
government,  but  most  of  the  others,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  individualistic  sentiment  so  strong  in  their 
time,  advocated  a  series  of  communes  with  large  pow- 
ers of  local  government,  small  associations  to  be 
banded  together  and  usually  to  be  made  subject  to  a 
central  control  whose  chief  concern  should  be  oversee- 
ing production.  'No  matter  what  particular  distribu- 
tion of  power  was  advocated,  the  idea  holds  throughout 
that  the  chief  object  of  the  central  administration  was 
to  be  the  industrial  activity  of  the  community. 

In  summary,  it  is  evident  that  the  doctrines  which 
represent  the  progress  of  the  theoretical  socialistic 
movement  in  France  up  to  1848,  show  a  marked  devel- 
opment in  socialism,  both  as  to  the  expansion  of  the 
ideal  it  involves  and  with  regard  to  the  increase  in  the 
intensity  and  reach  of  its  aims.  While  the  movement 
remained  idealistic  in  theory,  it  yet  looked  to  make  its 
ideals  present  realities.  A  tendency  to  scientific 
method  and  a  set  intention  to  point  means  as  well  as 
end,  marks  a  change  of  method.  As  to  theory,  the  idea 
of  a  social  evolution,  even  the  term  itself  is  now  first 
introduced  into  socialistic  doctrine  and  thus  individual 
happiness  is  to  be  looked  for  at  a  point  farther  on  in 
human  history  rather  than  in  a  return  to  any  prime- 
vally  perfect  past.  Civilization,  made  synonymous 
with  a  highly  developed  economic  society,  is  now  the 
sine  qua  non  for  man's  development,  instead  of  being 


230  MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

regarded  as  it  formerly  had  been  as  a  curse  to  him,  and, 
in  civilized  association,  the  greatest  possible  liberty  is 
said  to  be  the  means  to  that  individual  development 
which  is  the  end  of  all  social  activity.  In  their  criti- 
cism of  existing  society,  all  agree  that  the  impediment 
to  social  harmony  is  misdirected  production  with  its  in- 
evitable struggle  between  rich  and  poor,  between  idlers 
and  producers,  a  struggle  bred  of  the  false  industrial 
relations  which  mistaken  economic  principles  encour- 
age. Some  form  of  social  control  of  productive  wealth 
is  generally  urged  as  the  immediate  means  to  ameliorate 
the  social  conditions.  Larger  material  enjoyment,  fol- 
lowing upon  a  more  equitable  distribution  of  labor  and 
the  fruits  of  that  labor,  is  expected  to  give  higher  and 
better  living  for  all.  Though  moral  regeneration  is 
still  the  primary  aim,  the  idea  of  the  means  has  altered ; 
it  is  now  shown  that  in  order  to  make  men  morally 
better,  the  end  of  all  education  as  of  all  legislation,  must 
be  to  teach  them  how  to  bring  about  a  better  produc- 
tion. In  this  philosophy  which  lays  such  stress  upon 
the  economic  facts  of  social  life  as  the  key  to  social  har- 
mony, we  find  naturally  enough,  a  new  appreciation 
of  the  role  of  the  worker.  The  tendency  is  to  exalt 
the  laborer  and  the  class  to  which  he  belongs,  as  one 
who  plays  the  really  determinative  part  in  the  affairs 
of  humanity.  Finally,  we  are  told  that,  when  social 
control  of  industry  shall  have  secured  an  association 
where  all  men  shall  be  properly  graded  for  purposes  of 
production  and  distribution,  then  there  will  result  a 
greater  output  of  industrial  product,  the  poor  as  such 
will  disappear  and  all  will  be  assured  an  increased  en- 
joyment of  the  pleasures  and  intellectual  opportunities 
of  life. 


INFLUENCE  OF  THE  EARLY  SOCIALISTS.      231 

This  new  and  subversive  theory  which,  in  the  prog- 
ress of  the  years,  came  to  play  a  more  and  more  active 
part  in  the  civil  and  political  life  of  France  had  no  im- 
mediate practical  effect.  No  alteration  in  institutions 
came  from  the  several  movements  which  these  doctrines 
set  on  foot  in  the  end  of  establishing  the  rights  of  the 
down-trodden.  Until  1848,  the  various  social  leaders 
and  their  small  number  of  adherents  never  took  any 
really  active  part  in  the  political  movements  of  the 
national  life.  The  pitiful,  almost  disgraceful  finale  of 
the  little  group  at  Menilmontant  who  called  themselves 
Saint  Simonians,  seemed  to  end  completely  the  move- 
ment to  make  reality  of  Saint  Simon's  theory.  Fou- 
rierism,  in  spite  of  the  valiant  efforts  of  such  able  advo- 
catesas  Considerant,  Godin  and  others,  never  got  be- 
yond a  communal  existence  and  a  growing  discredit. 
Buchez  and  Leroux  were  early  read  out  of  socialism 
because  of  their  mysticism;  Proudhon  came  in  chiefly 
for  obloquy,  both  from  the  government  and  other  sects 
of  socialists;  Pecquer  and  Vidal  played  a  small  political 
role  in  the  Eevolution  of  1848,  and  along  with  Louis 
Blanc,  they  are  identified  with  those  National  Work- 
shops which  are  synonymous  in  socialistic  history  with 
failure.  This  revolution  of  1848,  with  its  complete 
fiasco  in  the  Napoleonic  empire  a  few  years  later, 
seemed  altogether  to  discredit  everything  that  the  so- 
cialism of  the  time  had  held  to  be  most  practicable  and 
helpful.  The  failure  of  the  National  workshops  was 
taken  to  be  the  negation  of  the  much  praised  and 
valued  Right  to  labor  which  had  been  the  very  core  of 


232       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM, 

the  socialistic  agitation,  and  with  that  defeat,  an  end 
seemed  to  have  come  momentarily  to  socialistic  en- 
deavor. 

But  though  the  labor  and  enthusiasm  of  these  men 
were  empty  of  palpable  results  in  institutions,  there 
seems  little  question  that  theirs  was  a  notable  work  of 
stimulation  in  quarters  best  adapted  to  give  real  force 
to  their  revolt  against  accepted  forms.  The  work  of 
arousing  men  to  the  conception  of  the  rights  of  the 
poor,  of  deepening  the  breach  between  economic  classes 
and  discrediting  an  individualistic  state  was  begun  at 
the  Jacobins  and  at  the  Cercle  Social,  but  only  in  the 
mouths  of  these  socialists  of  the  nineteenth  century 
did  this  effort  take  a  defined  and  broadly  political 
rather  than  a  merely  factional  tone.  Though  the  doc- 
trines which  have  been  set  down,  got  only  a  sectional 
following,  they  all  aimed  at  a  national  regeneration  by 
way  of  a  national  enlightenment;  their  appeal  was  to  the 
whole  community.  It  is  certain  that  if  social  condi- 
tions took  on  no  different  aspect  because  of  what  these 
men  preached,  their  doctrine  did  none  the  less  stimu- 
late men  of  a  certain  temperament  to  convey  to  another 
period  such  ideas  as  were  distinctive  of  the  theories 
now  reviewed.  They  served  to  arouse  many  persons 
to  the  fact  that  there  was  a  social  question  clamoring 
for  solution,  a  question  in  which  the  happiness  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  nation  seemed  involved. 

It  is  probable  however  that  the  most  tangible  result 
of  the  idealistic  movement  was  its  effect  upon  the  work- 
ing classes.  The  group  of  writers  whose  leading  prin- 
ciples have  here  been  explained  seem  certainly  to  have 
done  an  important  work  in  awakening  to  self-conscious- 


INFLUENCE  OF  THE  EARLY  SOCIALISTS.       233 

ness,  the  class  that  is  coming  more  and  more  to  "be 
called  the  Fourth  Estate.  The  steady  defense  by  all 
the  group  of  the  poor  against  the  rich,  their  unremit* 
ting  claims  for  reforms  that  should  relieve  the  under- 
valued workers,  may  have  been  without  practical  result, 
but  they  had  at  least  one  effect;  the  Fourth  Estate 
aroused  to  a  conception  of  itself  as  a  class  with  a  class 
struggle  to  be  fought  out  on  political  lines.  For  the 
general  reader,  the  chief  note  in  the  socialism  just  ex- 
amined, was  after  all,  and  still  is,  a  more  or  less  heated 
attack  upon  a  selfish  government  said  to  be  carried  on 
in  the  interests  of  a  single  class,  the  bourgeoisie,  and 
this  way  of  thinking  accented  by  contrast,  the  position 
of  that  other  class  whose  oppression  was  supposed  to 
give  social  supremacy  to  the  bourgeoisie.  Undoubt- 
edly, as  is  presently  to  be  shown,  the  Fourth  Estate 
came  to  a  new  notion  of  itself  and  its  rights  when 
machinery,  displacing  labor,  brought  at  certain  intervals 
inevitable  and  tragic  transition-periods  of  misery  and 
want;  when  free  competition  and  a  factory-system 
played  curiously  cruel  pranks  with  the  happiness  of 
the  many.  Industrialism  gave  the  laboring  classes  ac- 
tual demonstration  of  larger  possibilities  and  of  their 
own  limited  opportunity;  the  idealistic  socialists  gave 
the  out-of-pocket  and  the  unemployed  a  point  of  attack 
and  a  language  for  expressing  that  attack.  Without 
doubt,  the  agitation  of  this  group  is  greatly  responsible 
for  the  present  unfortunate  habit  of  the  working-classes 
to  consider  their  interests  as  apart  from  those  of  their 
employers.  The  steady  repetition  by  each  of  those 
writers,  of  the  belief  that  the  rich  exploited  the  poor, 
aroused  to  rebellion  that  poor  whose  condition  was 


234       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM.  ' 

really  improving,  else  it  would  not  have  come  to  this 
point  of  self-assertion.  Much  of  the  most  popular  fic- 
tion of  the  first  half  of  the  century  fell  in  with  some 
form  of  the  socialistic  theory,  more  particularly  in  this 
regard.*®  There  seems  every  reason  to  helieve  that, 
while  such  circumstances  as  the  growth  of  science,  the 
greater  economic  opportunity,  the  suffrage-right,  in 
short,  those  social  facts  which  are  to  he  the  suhject  of 
the  next  chapter,  aided  to  develop  the  laborer  beyond 
the  merely  brute  stage  of  inert  endurance,  these  facts 
did  not  give  the  whole  impetus.  The  teachings  of  the 
idealistic  socialists,  first  stirred  the  laborer's  emotions 
and  then  taught  him  to  think.  The  easy  and  simple 
formulae  which  he  has  since  written  upon  the  banners 
of  his  party,  he  first  learned  from  the  writings  of  the 
ancestors  of  modern  French  socialism. 

Thus  it  would  seem  that  the  chief  results  of  the 
French  idealistic  socialism  are  psychological  not  tangi- 
ble changes.  The  French  idealistic  movement  may  be 
Baid  to  have  awakened  France  to  the  fact  of  a  new  sort 
of  social  question  to  be  worked  out  by  changes  in  social 
institutions.     On  the  one  hand,  the  movement  taught 

49  This  cooperation,  which  the  best  known  of  the  novelipts 
of  the  day  gave  to  the  current  socialism,  might  be  added  to 
the  more  definite  causes  of  the  progress  of  socialism.  When 
George  Sand  attacked  state  and  social  institutions  in  her  ro- 
mances, or  when  in  her  inimitable  pastorals  she  pleaded  the 
cause  of  the  peasant  to  a  public  which  up  to  that  time  only 
knew  him  in  the  generalizations  of  Rousseau  and  his  imitators, 
she  was  aiding  the  cause  of  the  proletaire  in  a  way  that 
neither  Saint  Simon  nor  Proudhon  could  do  it.  Eugene  Sue's 
brilliant  powers  of  invention,  which  caught  and  held  the 
reader's  interest,  centered  that  interest  upon  the  proletarian, 
and  what,  though  his  ponderous  studies  of  "  le  peuple  "  repel, 
rather  than  attract,  to-day,  their  influence  upon  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  time  was  certainly  as  great  as,  if  not  greater  than, 
that  of  Fourier,  whose  disciple  he  was. 


INFLUENCE  OF  THE  EARLY  SOCIALISTS.       235 

many  of  the  upper  classes  that  all  demands  for  radical 
social  reforms  had  not  been  satisfied  by  the  Revolution, 
and  on  the  other,  it  had  a  pronounced  share  in  the  final 
and  complete  awakening  of  the  working  classes  to  a 
social  and  political  consciousness. 

It  is  not  however,  only  because  idealistic  socialists 
were  slowly  but  surely  able  to  find  some  following  for 
their  social  teaching,  that  we  have  a  militant  socialist 
doctrine  to-day.  A  theoretical  lineage  is  not,  as  has  been 
said,  sufficient  explanation  for  the  character  and  social 
force  of  any  doctrine.  Circumstances  of  social  growth 
aided  to  shape  the  theories  just  explained  and  helped 
to  make  way  for  them;  they  have  beside  had  much  to 
do  with  making  modern  French  socialism  what  it  now 
is,  an  active  materialistic  claim  for  place  as  the  prac- 
ticable basis  on  which  to  conduct  society.  The  more 
conspicuous  of  these  social  facts  require  some  discussion 
in  this  statement  of  the  determining  causes  of  the  pres- 
ent socialistic  theory  in  France. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  FOR  CHAPTER  IV. 

I.  General  Studies  of  Socialism: 

Booth.  Saint  Simon  and  the  Saint  Simonians,  Longmans, 
London,  1871. —  Bliss.  Hand-book  of  Socialism,  ed.  Funk  & 
Wagnalls,  N.  Y.,  1897. —  Duhring.  Kritische  Geschichte  der 
Nationalokonomie  und  der  Soeialismus,  ed.  Geilben,  Berlin, 
1871. —  Ely.  French  and  German  Socialism,  ed.  London,  Trttb- 
ner  &  Co.,  1882;  Socialism  and  Social  Reforms,  ed.  Crowell, 
N.  Y.,  1894. —  Espinas.  La  Philosophic  Sociale  au  XVIIIe 
sidcle,  ed.  F4lix  Alcan,  Paris,  1898. —  Graham.  History  of  So- 
cialism, ed.  Paul,  French,  Trtlbner  &  Co.,  London,  1891. — Janet. 
Les  origines  du  Socialisme  Contemporain.  ed.  F^lix  Alcan, 
Paris,  1896;  Saint  Simon  et  Saint  Simonianism  F6lix  Alcan, 
Paris. —  Kaufmnnn.  Utopias.  Kegan,  Paul  &  Co.,  London, 
1879. —  Kirkup.  History  of  Socialism.  Longmans,  Green  & 
Co.,  London,  1888. —  Lavelcye.  Le  Socialisme  Contemporain, 
ed.  F6lix  Alcan,  Paris,  1885. —  Leroy-Beaulieu.    La  Collectiv- 


236       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

isme,  ed.  Guillaumin  &  Cie.,  Paris,  1885 ;  La  Repartition  de  la 
Richesse,  ed.  Guillaumin  &  Cie.,  Paris,  1888. —  Lecky.  Democ- 
racy and  Liberty,  ed.  Longmans,  Green  k  Co.,  1896. —  Michel, 
L'Id6e  de  I'Etat,  ed.  Hachette,  Paris,  1896. —  Rae.  Contempo- 
rary Socialism,  ed.  Swan,  Sonnenschein  &  Co.,  1891. — Reyhaud. 
Etudes  sur  les  reformateurs  contemporains  ou  Socialisme 
moderne,  ed.  Guillaumin  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1848. —  Sombart.  Le 
Socialisme  et  le  mouvement  social  au  XIXe  si§cle,  ed.  Giard 
et  Bri^re,  Paris,  1898. —  Stein.  Socialismus  und  Communis- 
mus  des  heutigen  Frankreichs,  Leipzig,  1848,  ed.  Wigaud. — 
Sudre.  Histoire  de  Communisme,  ed.  Guillaumin  &  Cie.,  Paris, 
1856. —  Velley.  Le  Socialisme  Contemporain,  ed.  Guillaumin 
&  Cie.,  Paris,  1895. —  Woolsey.  Communism  and  socialism  in 
their  history  and  theory,  N.  Y.,  Scribner's  Sons,  1880. 

French  Idealistic  Socialists. 

Babeuf.  CEuvres  divers,  Paris,  1786-1797. — Buchez.  Histoire 
parlementaire  de  la  Revolution  frangaise,  ed.  Picard  et  fils, 
Paris,  1834-1838. —  Blanc.  Question  d'aujourd'hui  et  de  demain, 
ed.  Dentu,  Paris,  1873-1884;  Histoire  de  Dix  Ans,  ed.  Pagnerre, 
Paris,  1849;  Histoire  de  la  Revolution  frangaise,  ed.  Furnes  et 
Cie.,  Paris,  1869;  Revelations  Historique,  ed.  Leipzig,  1859. — 
Cabet.  Voyage  en  Icarie,  ed.  Paris,  1848;  Le  vrai  christianisme 
suivant  Jesus-Christ,  ed.  Au  Bureau  du  Populaire,  Paris,  1848. 
—  Fourier.  Theorie  des  Quatre  Mouvements,  ed.  Paris,  1846 
(CEuvres,  Vol.  I)  ;  Theorie  de  ^association  domestique  et  ag- 
ricole,  ed.  Paris,  1822. —  Leroux.  De  L'Humanite  ed.  Perro- 
tin,  Paris,  1840. —  Pecquer.  Des  ameliorations  materielles 
dans  leur  rapports  avec  la  liberte  ed.  Gosselin,  Paris,  1840; 
Theorie  nouvelle  d'economie  sociale,  ou  I'etude  sur  I'organiza- 
tion  de  la  societe,  ed.  Capelle,  Paris,  1842. —  Proudhon.  Uti- 
lite  de  la  celebration  de  Dimanche,  ed.  Lacroix  et  Cie.,  Paris, 
1868;  Qu'est  ce  que  la  Propriete?  1st  and  2d  Memoirs,  ed. 
Tuckerman;  Avertissement  aux  proprietaires,  ed.  Paris,  1868; 
Systeme  des  Contradictions  Economiques,  ou  la  Philosophic  de 
la  Misere,  ed.  Lacroix  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1867 ;  Idee  general  de  la 
Revolution,  ed.  Lacroix  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1868. —  Saint  Simon. 
CEuvres  de  Saint  Simon  et  D'Enfantin,  ed.  Dentu.  especially 
De  rindustrie :  L'Organizateur ;  Du  Systeme  Industriel ;  Nou- 
veau  Christianisme. —  Vidal.  De  la  Repartition  de  la  Richesse, 
ou  la  justice  distributive  en  economic  sociale,  ed.  Capelle, 
Paris,  i846;  Vivres  en  travaillant,  pro  jets,  voies  et  moyens  de 
reformes  sociales,  ed.   Capelle,  Paris,  1848. 

Imaginative  writers  who  express  sentiments  similar  to  those 
of  Idealistic  Socialists: 

George  Sand.  La  Comtesse  de  Rudolstadt ;  Compagnon  du 
tour  de  France;  Le  Pgche  de  M.  Antoine. —  Eugene  Sue.  Lea 
Myst^res  du  Peuple,  etc. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  SOCIAL  FACTS  WHICH  HAVE 
SHAPED  AND  DEVELOPED  MODERN 
FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 


CHAPTEEV. 

THE   SOCIAL   FACTS  WHICH   HAVE   SHAPED   AND 
DEVELOPED  MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

I.  The  Altered  Standing  of  Socialism  in  France  To-day. 
II.  Alterations  in  General  Standards  Which  Have  Af- 
fected THE  Doctrine  and  Position  of  Present-Day 
Socialism. 

III.  Economic  Changes  Aid  to  Develop  a  Fourth  Estate. 

IV.  The  Final  Influence  Which  Defined  the  Character 

of  the  Present  French  Socialism. 

I. 

Socialism  is  to-day  a  prominent  social  question  in 
France.  Nowhere  more  than  in  that  country  has  the 
change  during  this  century  in  regard  to  the  indorse- 
ment of  the  socialistic  theory  been  more  rapid  and  more 
noteworthy.  In  place  of  the  support  of  a  few  enthusi- 
asts which  was  all  that  it  could  get  in  the  early  part 
of  the  century,  French  socialism  is  to-day  the  ethical 
and  political  law,  almost  the  religion,  of  a  very  respect- 
able number  of  persons  who  are  active  sharers  in  the 
political  and  economic  life  of  the  nation. 

Nothing  is  more  marked  in  the  recent  development 
of  the  socialistic  movement  in  France,  than  the  pro- 
nounced difference  in  the  attitude  of  scholars  and  poli- 
ticians toward  it.  A  scholastic  world  which  once 
scoffed  and  smiled  at  the  doctrine,  has  come  to  treat  it 
with  an  attention  which  varies  from  the  apprehensive 
to  the  sympathetic;  a  practical  world  has  passed  from 
regarding  it  as  an  aberration  of  a  few  exalted  minds  to 

239 


240       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

recognizing  that  the  theory  is  that  of  a  militant  and 
conspicuous  party.  When,  some  years  ago,  men  of  let- 
ters not  adherents  of  the  party  made  studies  of  social- 
ism, the  ideas  which  its  advocates  put  forward  were 
treated  with  scorn  or  at  hest,  with  regret.^  The 
aims  of  the  movement  were  looked  upon  as  something 
very  like  the  chimera  of  a  sick  brain;  the  kindest  critics 
stopped  at  a  genial  recognition  of  the  good  intentions 
which  lay  behind  the  movement.  To-day,  even  the 
least  sympathetic  recognize  that  the  subject  is  to  be 
taken  seriously.^  Eancorous  attack  has  largely  disap- 
peared, and  the  theory  gets  a  considerate  even  sympa- 
thetic exposition  from  many  of  the  leaders  of  the  or- 
thodox thought  of  the  day.^  Professors  and  littera- 
teurs alike  watch  the  movement  with  increasing  inter- 
est. So  in  politics,  liberal  and  radical  politicians  have 
come  to  making  overtures  to  the  party;  at  present,  one 
of  its  number  is  a  member  of  the  ministry  of  France;* 
its  speakers  in  the  Chamber  are  listened  to  with  grow- 
ing respect;  the  newspaper  which  represents  its  inter- 
ests,*^  increases  its  circulation.  In  fine,  it  may  be  said 
that  for  any  well-informed  student  at  the  present  time, 
the  word  socialism  suggests  a  social  movement  entirely 
rid  of  the  Utopian  or  catastrophic  characteristics  which 

1  Comp.  e.  g.  Siidre,  op.  cit.,  or  Reybaud.  Etudes  sur  les 
R6formateurs  contemporains. 

2  As  for  example,  in  the  two  books  of  M.  Paul  Leroy-Beau- 
lieu.  "  Le  Collectivisme  "  and  "  La  Repartition  de  la  Richesse." 

3  See  e.  g.  Janet:  Les  Origines  du  socialisme  eontemporain ; 
Espinas,  La  philosophie  sociale  du  XVIIIe  si&cle  et  la  revolu- 
tion; or,  Lichtenberger,  Le  Socialisme  avant  la  Revolution; 
Le  Socialisme  et  la  Revolution  frangaise. 

4  Millerand. 

5  La  Petite  Republique. 


ALTERED  STANDING    OF  SOCIALISM.  241 

were  wont  to  cling  about  it  in  early  appreciations  of  it. 
Whether  they  regard  its  principles  with  hopefulness 
or  apprehension,  scholars  and  statesmen  alike  recognize 
the  doctrines  of  socialism  as  something  worthy  of  re- 
spectful attention.  Socialism  has  secured  for  itself  at 
the  hands  of  chair  and  tribune,  a  growing  respect  which 
saves  it  from  social  ostracism  and  sometimes  wins  sup- 
port for  it  in  unexpected  quarters. 

This  tolerance  however  is  of  slight  importance  to  the 
movement  compared  with  the  increased  suffrage  it  con- 
tinues to  gain  from  the  nation,  and  this  support  is 
chiefly  the  support  of  the  workingman.  There  are 
many  small  officials  in  the  movement;  there  is  even  a 
certain  sprinkling  of  university  men,  but  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  party  comes  from  the  working-classes. 
It  is  the  operative  in  the  manufacturing  districts 
and  in  the  cities,  who  has  given  27  municipalities 
to  socialistic  direction  and  by  the  strength  of  his  vote 
has  made  the  party  so  formidable  an  opponent  to  the 
Progressive  Republicans.  In  France  to-day,  socialism 
is  a  militant  party  whose  spokesmen  are  men  of  letters 
or  disaffected  politicians,  but  whose  backbone  is  the 
working-class. 

Certain  facts  of  modern  French  life  and  institutions 
seem  to  have  made  this  progress  of  the  doctrine  possible, 
while  at  the  same  time  they  have  given  it  the  particu- 
lar aspect  it  now  assumes  in  France. 

It  has  been  shown  that,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  revolutionary  principles  were  the  result  of  the  grad- 
ual focusing  of  doctrines  which,  arising  in  a  disorgan- 
ized way  as  new  social  theories,  finally  found  in  the 

16 


242       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

society  whence  they  arose,  the  necessary  impulse  which 
made  them  effective  princij)les.  It  was  seen  that  dis- 
satisfaction with  a  weak  government  which  failed  to 
recognize  the  new  claims,  gradually  fanned  a  popular 
discontent;  it  was  noted  that  a  powerful  class  in  the 
nation,  adopting  new  ideas  and  rebelling  against  an  ar- 
bitrary government  grew  to  another  conception  of  its 
rights;  and  lastly,  it  was  shown  that  these  claims  got 
undue  force  and  bitterness  because  government  neg- 
lected or  opposed  the  claims  that  this  class  urged  in 
the  name  of  the  nation. 

It  will  not  do  to  press  too  far  the  parallel  between 
the  eighteenth  century  influences  and  those  of  the  nine- 
teenth, but  when  the  chief  changes  in  French  social 
life  during  the  nineteenth  century  are  considered,  it 
seems  possible  to  find  a  certain  similarity  of  causes.  In 
view  of  the  earnest  attention  which  it  has  just  been 
shown  is  now  accorded  the  socialist  theory,  recollecting 
the  increased  respect  now  paid  to  its  adherents,  the 
neglect  of  claims  long  urged  may  be  dismissed  from 
among  the  influences  bearing  upon  the  development 
of  modern  French  socialism.  Otherwise,  in  general,  the 
facts  are  not  dissimilar.  In  the  nineteenth  century, 
as  in  the  eighteenth,  there  can  be  noted  in  French  life 
the  rise  and  spread  of  new  standards,  more  particularly 
the  development  of  a  new  method  of  investigation,  of 
a  new  ideal  of  government  and  of  a  widened  sense  of 
social  responsibility.  There  can  be  seen  too,  in  this 
century  as  in  the  last,  an  unstable  government  which 
neither  absolutely  suppresses  nor  yet  upholds  these 
n^w  ideals;  tber^  can  also  be  found  altered  social  con-. 


NEW  METHODS  OF  INVESTIGATION.  243 

ditions  which,  along  with  the  changed  standards,  have 
made  more  directly  for  the  rise  of  another  class,  again 
impressed  with  its  false  position  in  society,  again  filled 
with  a  new  appreciation  of  its  own  value  and  a  new 
and  pronounced  desire  for  a  better  standard  of  living. 
Each  of  these  influences  seems  to  have  played  a  deter- 
minative part  in  developing  the  character  and  enlarg- 
ing the  reach  of  modern  French  socialism. 

II. 

To  begin  with  the  change  of  opinion  in  regard  to 
fundamental  theories,  and  first  of  all  with  the  new  at- 
titude toward  scientific  research. 

To  make  anything  beyond  a  general  statement  con- 
cerning the  innovations  in  thought  which  science  has 
effected,  would  be  singularly  unnecessary  at  the  close 
of  a  century  wherein  an  almost  complete  thought-revo- 
lution has  taken  place  because  of  what  scientific  re- 
search has  revealed.  To-day  science  has  practically 
won  its  fight.  Carried  into  the  present  age  by  the 
same  wave  of  superficial  materialism  which  swept  the 
doctrines  of  the  French  Eevolution  into  the  century, 
the  right  of  scientific  research  is  now  keenly  respected 
in  France,  in  spite  of  contending  creeds  and  dogmas, 
superstitions  and  ignorant  conservatism.  To-day,  the 
nation  pays  a  new  reverence  to  the  old  object  of  its  ad- 
miration, the  laws  of  nature,  now  finally  understood  to 
be  revealed  by  scientific  research  and  only  by  scien- 
tific research.  Positivism  has  made  a  deep  impression 
in  France,  even  though  it  has  not  been  entirely  ac- 


244:       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

cepted  there.  The  school  of  philosophy  founded  by 
Auguste  Comte,  the  school  which,  whatever  its  faults, 
has  undoubtedly  been  the  inspiration  for  all  modern 
study  of  history  and  society,  has  deeply  influenced  all 
the  strongest  thinkers  in  the  nation  which  saw  its  be- 
ginnings; the  positivism  of  Comte  may  be  said  to  have 
had  a  share  in  shaping  the  national  thought.  Every 
department  of  letters  gives  evidence  that  men  are  ap- 
preciating more  and  more  the  value  of  the  patient  re- 
search which  slowly  but  surely  makes  clear  the  relation 
between  the  parts  of  inorganic  and  organic  life,  the  re- 
lation of  each  of  these  to  the  other  and  of  man  to  both. 
The  most  accredited  French  theory  to-day  recognizes 
the  great  truth  that  any  law,  social  or  political,  in 
order  to  have  real  value,  must  rest,  not  on  the  sanction 
of  innate  consciousness,  nor  the  abstract  deductions  of 
any  one  mind,  but  upon  the  certainty  of  scientific 
demonstration.  With  the  rest  of  the  enlightened 
world,  France  has  practically  adopted  the  empiri- 
cal method  as  the  safest  guide  to  the  study  of 
the  problems  of  man  and  society.  Every  branch  of 
national  literature  shows  the  influence  of  this  new  sen- 
timent which  holds  that  the  validity  of  any  law  is  rela- 
tive to  its  possibilities  for  verification  by  some  of  the 
facts  of  reality. 

The  new  popularity  of  science  has  everywhere  ef- 
fected an  important  modification  in  socialistic  theory. 
The  changed  position  of  science  has  made  an  even  more 
marked  alteration  in  the  dogmas  of  the  latest  French 
socialism.  Because  scientific  method  has  now  come  so 
entirely  into  favor,  we  have  in  France  a  new  kind  of 


NEW  METHODS   OF  INVESTIGATION.  245 

socialism  and  a  greater  readiness  to  listen  to  the  doc- 
trines it  preaches. 

When  regarded  as  the  particular  influence  which 
has  reacted  upon  the  latest  socialistic  thought,  science 
has  had  results  not  altogether  beneficial  perhaps. 
Under  the  influence  of  the  new  method  that  science 
teaches,  that  which  in  the  past  was  predominatingly 
an  evangelical  and  idealistic  philosophy  has  now  be- 
come uncompromising  and  materialistic.  Catching  at 
the  nearest  teachings  of  science,  many  French  socialists 
became  ''  scientifically  convinced "  materialists.  The 
first  effect  of  scientific  research  even  in  the  eighteenth 
century  was  to  bring  about  a  sharp  reaction  against 
theology.  The  mass  of  doctrine  which  had  been  put 
forward  by  all  Christian  cults  as  so  much  final  and  re- 
vealed truth,  was  rejected  in  toto  by  extremists  when 
some  of  it  stood  disproved  by  the  positive  demonstra- 
tion of  science. 

In  this  first  reaction,  theology  went  so  completely  to 
the  wall,  that  whatever  it  contained  of  truth  went  with 
it.  Since  by  his  very  nature,  the  socialist  is  before  any 
other  an  extremist,  he  most  of  all,  threw  over  the  old 
beliefs;  whether  an  apostle  or  disciple,  it  was  he  who 
took  most  kindly  to  a  creed  which  some  scientists  were 
putting  forward.  Soon,  socialists  were  first  among 
those  who  denied  any  existence  other  than  that  of  this 
world.  Though  they  disavowed  the  doctrine  of  an- 
other life  and  the  other  tenets  of  the  old  craed  with  as 
much  narrowness  as  the  theologians  had  formerly  as- 
serted them,  they  called  their  theories  of  first  causes 
"  scientific."     If   French   socialism   has  in   great  part 


246       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

adopted  a  materialistic  tone,  it  is  because  it  believes  it 
can  prove  its  hypotheses  scientifically. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  socialism  under  discussion 
has  ceased  to  neglect  history  and  has  come  to  take  ac- 
count of  a  physiological  and  psychological  variation  in 
men,  it  is  as  well  because  of  its  newly-acquired  respect 
for  the  findings  of  science.  Science  has  made  socialism 
materialistic,  but  it  has  also  brought  it  out  of  utopia 
to  at  least  a  partial  appreciation  of  the  facts  of  reality. 

Lastly,  it  can  easily  be  seen  how  the  spread  of  a  scien- 
tific spirit  has  probably  aided  socialism  to  find  disciples. 
Socialism,  as  has  been  said,  has  taught  society  a  new 
method  and  has  taught  it  materialism,  and  these  new 
characteristics  go  for  much  in  convincing  many  who 
have  come  to  respect  everything  "  scientific,"  that  there 
is  a  reality  worthy  of  attention  in  the  doctrines  of  so- 
cialism. The  development  of  a  critical  and  scientific 
spirit  likewise  aided  to  discredit  that  habit  of  the  past 
which  left  education  in  the  hands  of  the  theologians 
vowed  to  a  revealed  cosmogony.  The  way  was  thus 
made  easy  for  the  introduction  of  the  new  ideas  during 
the  educational  period  of  men's  lives.  Under  the  grow- 
ing spirit  of  tolerance,  bred  by  the  scientific  spirit,  so- 
cialism has  made  its  way  even  into  scholastic  teaching; 
in  academic  circles,  this  subversive  theory  of  society  has 
found  a  hearing  and  has  not  always  been  rejected.  It 
is,  too,  the  indirect  influence  of  science  which  enables 
the  French  radical  to  prove  as  he  was  never  before  able 
to  prove,  his  long-cherished  creed  that,  by  the  exercise 
of  their  natural  gifts,  men  can  reshape  the  universe  so 
as  to  secure  for  themselves  the  greatest  possible  happi- 


NEW  METHODS   OF  INVESTIGATION.  247 

ness.  Socialists  can  now  point  to  the  countless  me- 
chanical contrivances  which  scientific  knowledge  has 
made  part  of  our  daily  life  and  by  these  can  demonstrate 
how  swift  and  important  changes  in  possession  and  posi- 
tion can  be  accomplished.  And  the  lesson  they  thus 
teach  is  no  me.an  ally  for  winning  disciples  to  social- 
ism. Again,  new  methods  of  transportation  and  com- 
munication, brought  about  by  the  teaching  of  science, 
now  make  it  possible  for  a  new  idea  to  present  itself 
daily  through  the  press  to  men  in  every  walk  in  life. 
So,  too,  some  of  these  gifts  of  science  enable  teachers 
of  a  new  theory  to  travel  about  with  a  rapidity  incon- 
ceivable to  a  past  generation,  while,  by  wire  and  rapid 
post,  they  can  keep  up  a  concerted  and  united  effort 
among  themselves.  The  French  socialist  has  not  been 
behind  other  teachers  and  preachers  in  taking  advan- 
tage of  and  reaping  results  from  these  new  opportuni- 
ties; he,  as  well  as  another,  nay  in  France  better  than 
any  other,  has  learned  to  print  his  pamphlets  and  send 
them  to  the  most  remote  corners  of  the  nation,  to  es- 
tablish his  central  committee  and  spread  his  network 
of  propagandists  all  over  the  country,  even  while,  with 
post  and  wire,  he  keeps  them  a  compact  group  acting 
with  a  definitely  arranged  plan. 

It  may  then  be  said  that  science  has  not  only  mate- 
rially altered  the  character  of  socialistic  theory,  but  even 
more  than  this,  making  as  it  does  for  a  social  sanction 
to  freedom  of  thought  or  for  the  swift  and  constant 
spread  of  that  thought  by  means  of  telegraph,  news- 
paper, pamphlet  or  the  rapid  transfer  of  the  lecturer 
from  point  to  point,  it  has  indirectly  prepared  the  way 
for  the  spread  of  socialism. 


248       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

Even  more  vital  to  the  subject  of  investigation  is 
the  part  played  in  French  life  and  institutions  by  the 
doctrine  of  democracy.  It  seems  fairly  demonstrable 
that  socialism  has  found  such  ready  acceptance  in  France 
and  assumed  whatever  specific  character  it  has  acquired 
there,  because  the  social  dissatisfaction  in  that  country 
is  political  and  ethical  rather  than  economic.  The 
syllogistic  arguments  in  the  economic  theory  of  the 
controlling  socialism  would  have  had  little  weight  if 
they  were  not  after  all  merely  so  many  proofs  that  a 
change  of  government  is  desirable.  French  national 
life  all  through  the  century  has  been  greatly  modified 
because  of  the  popularity  of  the  cherished,  century-old 
ideal  of  pure  democracy.  It  is  because  democracy,  as 
a  method  of  government  has  been  the  insistent  demand 
of  an  appreciable  and  powerful  part  of  the  nation  that 
nineteenth-century  history  in  France  is  notable  for  the 
lack  of  a  political  concensus  and  for  a  general  faith  in 
revolutionary  methods  as  a  means  to  social  change.  To 
this  instability  of  government  and  this  consequent  readi- 
ness to  undertake  radical  changes  in  the  fundamental 
law,  add  the  natural  predisposition  of  the  nation  to  a 
highly-organized  administrative  government  and  the 
pronounced  tendency  since  the  Kevolution  to  a  doctrine 
of  intervention  in  the  behalf  of  other  nations,  and  it  is 
easy  to  see  how  these  facts  have  shaped  and  supple- 
mented the  old  arguments  of  socialism  and  laid  the  chief 
stress  of  the  agitation  in  France  upon  political  changes. 

In  its  action  upon  any  society,  democracy  may  be 
said  to  affect  radically  the  character  of  each  of  the  social 
interests.  Whether  political,  humanitarian,  esthetic,  re- 
ligious or  economic,  each  social  institution  is  modified  as 


PRINCIPLE  OF  DEMOCRACY.  249 

the  democratic  idea  gradually  develops.  When  it  is 
socially  agreed  that  government  is  for  the  benefit  of  the 
governed;  that  government  is  only  the  agent  and  repre- 
sentative of  the  governed  who  are  the  final  power  from 
which  all  social  rule  derives,  then  political  institutions 
become,  at  least  in  men's  minds,  the  direct  organ  for 
carrying  out  the  will  of  the  nation.  So  too,  when  the 
idea  presses  always  to  the  front  that  externals  are  a  false 
gauge  of  the  real  value  of  the  individual,  art  and  letters 
are  slowly  penetrated  with  the  consciousness  that  all 
men  have  rights,  and  that,  in  capacity  for  suffering  and 
happiness,  all  men  are  on  a  level.  When  this  idea  that 
each  and  all  are  equally  valuable  and  equally  able  to 
battle  for  life  and  happiness  if  only  left  free  to  do  it, 
is  accepted  without  qualification,  even  theology  rejects 
the  idea  of  an  external  force  as  final  arbiter  of  man's 
fate,  and  substitutes  for  it  one  altogether  subjective. 
Lastly,  when  democracy  seeks  to  sweep  aside  all  forms 
and  ceremonies,  all  distinctions  of  dress  and  privilege, 
and  leaves  no  line  of  demarcation  except  that  one  which 
begins  and  ends  in  men's  capacity  to  wrest  their  well- 
being  from  Nature,  then  democracy  makes  for  reducing 
all  the  various  separations  of  men's  interests  to  one  sepa- 
ration upon  purely  economic  lines.  Democracy,  carry- 
ing with  it  these  results,  has  in  a  way  penetrated  into 
each  of  the  institutions  of  French  life.  To-day,  in  spite 
of  her  Latin  law  and  her  traditions  of  paternalism, 
France  pleases  herself  with  the  thought  that  she  has 
been  the  apostle  of  democracy  for  modern  Europe. 
And  in  a  sense  this  is  true. 

The  service  of  France  to  the  modern  world,  a  ser- 
vice whose  benefits  are  open  to  discussion,  has  been  the 


250       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

formulation  of  the  ideal  of  democracy.  While  in  the 
England  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  individualistic 
instinct  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  was  stubbornly  main- 
taining that  the  rights  of  the  government  rested  upon 
the  rights  of  the  governed,  and  in  particular  insisting 
upon  the  right  of  the  governed  to  control  the  tax; 
while  public  opinion  was  doggedly  pressing  the  right 
to  a  system  of  justice  separate  from  the  powers  of  gov- 
ernment, and  the  right  to  absolute  publicity  for  all  ju- 
dicial acts  along  with  the  universal  use  of  jury  trial; 
and  all  this,  with  very  little  talk  of  democracy  and 
much  accent  upon  the  "  divine  right  of  kings,'^  a  very 
different  kind  of  democratic  feeling,  as  has  been  seen, 
took  hold  of  France.  It  has  been  noted  that  French- 
men of  the  eighteenth  century  derived  their  enthusiasm 
for  the  ideal  of  democracy  from  an  admiring  study  of 
the  governments  of  that  nature  which  the  history  of 
Greece  and  Eome  had  preserved  for  them;  as  a  theory 
of  applied  politics,  they  copied  it  from  an  Anglo-Saxon 
people.  The  wave  of  democratic  opinion  which  brought 
in  the  American  republic  and  swept  onward  as  the 
French  Eevolution,  also  made  democracy  a  political 
ideal  for  modern  France  and  modern  Europe.  Though 
the  government  it  tried  to  set  up  disappeared  as  soon 
as  it  was  formulated,  crushed  down  by  the  Terrorists 
and  the  Bonapartist  despotism,  the  dramatic  entrance 
of  the  principle  of  democracy  into  French  politics  was 
none  the  less  the  first  enunciation  of  a  principle  which 
has  since  stood  for  much.  The  ideas  inspired  by  democ- 
racy have  given  the  impetus  which  many  times  during 
the  century  has  stirred  a  goodly  quota  of  French  citi- 
zens to  something  very  near  madness;  finally,  it  has 


PRINCIPLE  OF  DEMOCRACY.  251 

predisposed  them  to  regard  favorably  any  theory  which 
rests  upon  the  democratic  ideal. 

Thus,  in  France,  the  socialistic  movement^  is  first  of 
all  a  democratic  movement,  both  in  answer  to  the  qual- 
ity of  mind  of  the  agitator  in  that  country  and  because 
of  the  temperamental  propensities  of  those  who  are  to 
be  aroused.  The  great  popularity  of  the  democratic 
ideal  of  government  has  both  done  a  conspicuous  work 
in  giving  a  somewhat  special  form  to  the  doctrine  of 
modern  French  socialism  and  increased  the  chances 
of  the  doctrine  for  getting  a  hearing  in^  a  nation  pre- 
disposed to  democracy.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
French  socialism  of  the  early  part  of  the  century  was 
first  among  the  theories  of  the  time  to  indorse  without 
qualification  this  conception  of  political  relations  which 
has  since  grown  to  be  the  leading  social  and  political 
ideal  of  the  century. 

French  socialism  stands  now  as  always  for  democracy, 
and  adopts  each  of  the  social  prejudices  which  deduce 
from  it ;  it  has  unfalteringly  maintained  the  idea  of  per- 
sonal right  both  in  relation  to  government  and  to  all  ac- 
cessory social  interests,  and  the  most  French  form  of  it 
still  maintains  the  idea  of  personal  duty  and  self-abnega- 
tion in  relation  to  social  control.  This  point  of  view  of 
the  socialist  is  an  open  sesame  in  many  quarters  in  a  na- 
tion where  the  dream  of  pure  democracy  by  way  of  Lib- 

6  Socialism  is,  of  course,  not  everywhere  primarily  demo- 
cratic. In  Germany,  the  accent  falls  much  more  upon  econ- 
omic questions;  possible  government  forms  barely  come  into 
the  foreground.  In  England,  it  is  progressive  administrative 
measures  which  have  chief  place  as  remedy  for  present  griev- 
nncos;  it  is  unusual  to  find  an  exact  ideal  of  government  set 
down. 


252       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

erty,  Equality  and  Fraternity  still  carries  great  force. 
To  that  part  of  France  which  has  been  bred  in  a  sort  of 
worship  of  the  Revolution  and  is  to-day  alive  to  the  glar- 
ing disparity  between  the  presence  of  the  revolutionary 
motto  upon  the  public  buildings  and  the  absence  of 
it  in  the  civil  law  of  the  land,  socialism  offers  a 
new  hope  for  the  realization  of  the  old  shibboleth. 
The  idea  of  solidarity  stands  for  fraternity;  equality 
figures  as  equality  of  opportunity  in  a  reorganized  in- 
dustrial state,  and  together,  this  equality  of  opportun- 
ity and  solidarity  are  the  means  to  insure  real  liberty, 
which  is  economic  liberty. 

Again,  the  democratic  ideal,  modifying  the  character 
of  the  French  government,  has  stamped  a  particular 
tone  upon  French  socialistic  doctrine  in  relation  to  the 
idea  of  a  change  of  government  and  the  desirability 
of  immediate  change. 

Throughout  the  century,  the  lack  of  political  concen- 
sus in  France  has  been  so  pronounced  that,  except  at 
brief  intervals,  what  has  been  happily  called  a  "  state 
of  permanent  instability'^^  has  characterized  the  gov- 
ernment. The  weak  and  changeable  character  of  the 
administration,  consequent  upon  a  continuous  disagree- 
ment among  the  ruling  factions,  has  greatly  discredited 
the  parliamentary  republic,  and,  what  is  more  to  the 
point,  has  greatly  increased  the  number  of  malcontents. 
Now,  the  first  note  in  socialistic  theory,  as  the  first 
requisite  for  conversion  to  socialism,  is  discontent.  Be- 
cause of  the  well-defined  disappointment  in  the  present 

7  Lowell,  Governments  and  Parties  in  Continental  Europe, 
I,  p.  84. 


PRINCIPLE  OF  DEMOCRACY.  253 

form  of  government,  socialism,  a  social  philosophy 
which  arraigns  that  government,  finds  a  greater  toler- 
ance and  a  larger  support  than  it  could  otherwise  have 
hoped  for. 

Finally,  these  democratic  ideals  have  brought  the 
frequent  changes  of  government  which  this  century 
has  seen.  The  French  malcontent  is  almost  al- 
ways a  radical,  or  at  any  rate  malcontents  who 
look  to  radical  change  make  themselves  numeri- 
cally as  well  as  dramatically  more  evident  in  France 
than  elsewhere.  The  history  of  the  past  century 
has  accented  this  predisposition.  A  nation  which 
has  looked  on  at  four  radical  changes  of  government 
in  a  century,  certainly  offers  a  fair  field  for  propagating 
the  teachings  of  a  mildly  revolutionary  movement. 
There  are  to-day  in  France  many  persons  who  listen 
with  a  tolerance  almost  impossible  for  the  Anglo-Saxon 
to  the  socialistic  idea  of  an  imminent  and  complete  re- 
ordering of  society.  Evolutionary  socialism  has  come 
to  France  by  way  of  revolutionary  socialism  and  the 
notion  of  revolution  is  rather  reluctantly  relinquished.^ 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  trust  in  revolution- 
ary methods  which  temperament  and  tradition  have  be- 
queathed to  the  Frenchman,  has  played  no  inconspicu- 
ous part  in  giving  a  certain  special  character  to 
French  socialism,  as  it  has  also  added  to  the  ranks  of 
the  socialistic  party. 

Thus,  in  answer  to  the  question  as  to  the  direct  in- 
fluence of  the  democratic  ideas  upon  the  theory  and 
progress  of  French  socialism,  it  seems  evident  that  the 

8  See  e.  g.  Deville.  Principes  Socialistes,  pp.  1-91 ;  also, 
Jaurfes,  Evolution  ou  Revolution. 


254       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

influence  was  important  and  extended.  *  Every  part  of 
socialistic  theory  will  be  found  to  take  some  color  from 
the  doctrine  of  democracy,  and  the  wide  popularity  of 
the  democratic  doctrines  has  in  turn  been  a  further  ar- 
gument for  the  progress  of  socialism. 

Finally  nothing  among  prevailing  notions  of  political 
theory  helped  better  to  shape  and  give  vogue  to  the  so- 
cialistic dogma,  than  the  national  predisposition  to  de- 
mand the  very  increase  of  government  initiative  and  to 
preach  the  same  universalistic  trend  which  socialism  has 
always  implied. 

Just  as  tradition  speaks  to  the  present  generation  in 
favor  of  a  theory  which  suggests  rapid  and  radical 
changes,  such  as  those  by  which  they  believe  themselves 
to  have  profited  in  the  past,  so  French  history  accredits 
the  socialistic  notion  of  a  more  highly  centralized  gov- 
ernment. As  has  already  been  pointed  out.  Frenchmen 
have  always  looked  to  government  for  the  initiative; 
they  have  always  welcomed  a  strong  and  far-reaching 
administrative  interference  in  their  affairs.  In  spite  of 
the  individualistic  theory  of  government  which  was  im- 
ported into  their  country  during  the  last  century,  their 
system  rests  to-day  upon  the  lines  of  the  bureaucratic 
and  paternal  government  of  Napoleon  I,  and  that  very 
government  is  especially  dear  to  many  of  the  French, 
particularly  those  of  the  peasant  class.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  this  idea  of  the  need  for  a  centralized 
power  which  directs  society  appears  in  the  theory 
of  the  early  socialists.  All  the  glory  of  the  past 
of  France  rests  upon  periods  of  highly-organized  central 
administration.     The  additional  government  interfer- 


PRINCIPLE  OF  DEMOCRACY.  ^55 

ence  which  socialism  suggests,  instead  of  shocking  the 
native  tendencies  of  Frenchmen,  falls  rather  in  line 
with  the  personal  inclination  and  national  propensities 
of  many  among  them.  By  instinct  and  training,  the 
Frenchman  is  much  more  of  a  socialist  than  he  is  a  par- 
ticularist.^  So  too,  since  the  revolutionists  declared 
themselves  the  apostles  of  liberty  for  all  Europe,  it  has 
been  the  fashion  for  all  French  radicalism  to  believe 
in  a  universal  bond  between  nations,  and  to  stand  for 
the  right  and  duty  of  mutual  relief  and  aid.  French 
radicalism  is  thus  "  international  ^'  in  spirit,  even  when 
it  is  not  avowedly  socialistic,  and  the  "  international- 
ism ^'^^  of  modern  socialism  seems  at  once  a  natural  re- 
sult of  a  revolutionary  theory  and  an  answer  to  a  senti- 
ment dear  to  many  Frenchmen. 

Democratic  institutions  have  aided  to  emphasize 
the  political  doctrine  of  socialism  and  to  give  it  popu- 
larity. The  same  democratic  institutions  have  given 
added  force  to  that  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  well- 
being  of  society  which  has  already  been  shown  to  have 
been  always  the  first  cause  of  socialistic  thinking. 

Democratic  institutions  are  first  the  effect  of  the  in- 
dividualistic instinct,  and  in  turn  become  the  cause  of 
the  spread  of  that  instincts  Where  the  spirit  of  self- 
assertion  has  not  innate  strength,  there  democracy  can 
find  no  stable  footing;  where  the  presence  of  such  a 
spirit  gives  democracy  a  permanent  share  in  the  social 
growth  of  the  nation,  there  the  very  spirit  of  self-asser- 

»  Compare  the  somewhat  pessimistic,  but  interesting,  book  of 
M.  Edmond  Deraolins.  A  quoi  tient  la  sup6riorit§  anglo- 
saxonne. 

10  See  infra,  p.  281,  foot-note. 


^56  MODEltN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

tion  which  created  democracy  now  keeps  alive  and  de- 
velops to  an  additional  force  that  same  particularistic 
trait  from  which  it  springs.  In  this  way,  democracy 
makes  for  the  development  of  an  effective  self-con- 
sciousness, and  in  turn  this  same  consciousness  of  self 
comes  to  expand  into  a  consciousness  of  a  duty  toward 
others.  For  under  democratic  institutions,  the  individ- 
ual is  taught  to  submit  to  the  will  of  the  majority;  to 
look  upon  his  neighbor  as  one  whose  rights  are  identical 
with  his  own;  to  understand  that  an  integral  part  of 
his  duty  is  to  help  maintain  a  general  well-being.  Thus 
democracy  teaches  men  to  include  in  a  resolute  insist- 
ence upon  personal  well-being,  an  additional  claim  for 
social  well-being;  it  obliges  them  to  put  alongside  their 
strengthened  individual  consciousness,  a  gradually  de- 
veloping social  consciousness.  Some  such  alteration  in 
the  notions  of  individual  and  social  duty  has  come  about 
in  France  and  has  had  a  share  in  furthering  the  spread 
of  socialistic  doctrine. 

A  broadened  idea  of  what  constitutes  personal  duty 
has  with  the  progress  of  the  past  two  centuries  slowly 
but  certainly  developed  a  wider  social  consciousness. 
Two  centuries  ago,  French  philosophy  tended  to  awaken 
only  an  individual  consciou^ess.  Descartes  and  Pascal 
put  such  accent  upon  the  individual  responsibility  that 
the  teaching  of  their  individualism  almost  entirely  lost 
sight  of  the  social  duty  of  each  person;  but  in  the  next 
century,  as  has  been  seen,  Eousseau  aroused  that  sense 
of  personal  duty  which  includes  not  only  individual  but 
social  well-being.  The  idea  that  social  duties  were  ill' 
volved  in  individual  rights  has  been  supported  since 


SOCIAL   CONSCIOUSNESS.  257 

the  introduction  of  democracy.  In  the  early  days  of 
the  Constituent  Assembly,  when  the  formulation  of  the 
Declaration  of  Eights  was  under  discussion,  it  was  pro- 
posed^^  that  the  articles  about  to  be  drawn  up  be  called  a 
Declaration  of  Eights  and  Duties. ^^  It  was  urged  that 
"  The  word  citizen  announces  a  correlation  with  other 
citizens  and  this  correlation  engenders  duties,"^^  and 
that  it  was  essentially  necessary  "to  make  a  declara- 
tion of  Duties  in  order  to  retain  them  (the  citizens) 
within  the  limits  of  their  rights.^^  Although  Mirabeau 
dismissed  the  whole  debate  as  "arguties  peu  digne 
d'une  assemblee  politique/'  the  idea  came  up  often, 
and  the  duty  as  well  as  the  right  of  citizenship  was 
accented  throughout  the  Ee volution.  ^^  During  our  own 
century,  whether  in  theological  or  laic  theory,  the  same 
idea  has  strengthened  and  gone  abroad.  The  spirit  of 
the  age  is  as  strong  in  France  as  elsewhere.  Many  have 
come  to  see  their  relations  to  each  other  in  a  new  light. 
Not  only  the  prevailing  political  principles  but  the 
ethical  call  as  well,  has,  throughout  the  century,  more 
and  more  insistently  asked  for  something  besides  a  per- 
il Stance  of  August  4.  Moniteur,  Vol.  I,  p.  277. 
i2Gr6goire  makes  the  plea.  See  his  remarkable  speech; 
also,  that  of  the  Bishop  of  Chartres  who  prophetically  says 
that,  without  a  statement  of  duties,  "  On  court  risque  d'eveiller 
I'egoisme  et  I'orgueil." 

13  Clermont-Lad§ve  —  Choix  de  Rapports,  Vol.  I,  p.  228. 

14  See,  for  instance,  Robespierre's  remarks  when  the  com- 
mittee of  '93,  on  a  Declaration  of  Rights,  brought  in  its  re- 
port (Moniteur,  Vol.  XVI,  p.  214),  or  Vergniaud,  "  Pr6tendre 
que  la  nation  seule  doit  s'obliger  envers  la  nation,  c'est  §riger 
en  principe  I'ingratitude  et  I'injustice.'*  He  declares  that  so- 
ciety rests  on  the  idea  of  mutual  obligations  and  that  the 
duties  of  the  individual  toward  society  are  "  non  moins  re- 
spectable que  les  droits  de  rhomme  "  ( Speech  on  "  Emigres  " ) . 

17 


258       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

sonal  struggle  toward  higher  things.  Modern  social 
theories  of  all  sorts,  modern  political  principles,  as 
well  as  modern  ethics,  whether  in  the  name  of  happi- 
ness or  perfection,  ask  that  each  take  an  effective  share 
in  a  concerted  social  struggle  toward  a  higher  social 
harmony. 

In  addition  to  the  stimulus  which  democracy  and 
ethical  teaching  have  given  to  the  development  of  so- 
cial consciousness,  two  other  important  facts  of  social 
growth,  the  reawakening  of  a  strong  national  feeling 
and  an  increased  importance  of  town  life  have  in- 
fluenced in  the  same  direction.  It  need  hardly  be  in- 
sisted that  the  consciousness  of  a  national  bond  draws 
men  closer  to  one  another;  the  spirit  of  patriotism 
lives  only  so  long  as  a  certain  social  consciousness  is 
alive  in  each  member  of  the  community.  In  spite  of 
the  many  and  formidable  tumults,  to  which  their  na- 
tional life  has  been  subjected,  the  French  love  of  coun- 
try has  remained  a  conspicuous  fact  of  their  history 
during  the  century.  In  this  century,  too,  France,  like 
the  other  nations  of  the  world,  has  seen  the  develop- 
ment of  its  towns,  and,  along  with  less  happy  results, 
town-life  has,  in  France  as  elsewhere,  had  an  appreciable 
influence  in  widening  and  deepening  fellow-feeling  and 
increasing  the  sense  of  a  personal  responsibility  for  the 
general  happiness.  Especially  among  the  working- 
classes,  town-life  has  made  for  a  growing  consciousness 
of  the  needs  of  all  and  for  impressing  upon  each  the 
value  of  mutual  aid  in  the  struggle  for  a  living. 

Thus,  under  the  stimulus  of  cultural  instruction  or 
gocial  cojiditions,  there  has  grown  up  what^  in  the  hap- 


SOCIAL   CONSCIOUSNESS.  259 

pily  situated  is  called  the  spirit  of  philanthropy,  and 
what  in  those  who  must  wrestle  with  circumstances, 
might  be  called  the  consciousness  of  the  need  of  each 
other.  This  sentiment,  in  either  case,  is  a  form  of  so- 
cial consciousness  which  has  had  a  marked  influence 
in  the  development  of  social  theory. 

This  social  consciousness  is,  and  has  always  been, 
fundamental  to  socialism  and  to  the  making  of  a  so- 
cialist. Socialism  is  only  philanthropy,  armed  with  a 
philosophy  and  a  political  system  calculated  to  cure  all 
social  diseases.  Socialists  are  only  philanthropists  who 
think  they  have  found  a  way  to  root  out  the  causes  of  so- 
cial misery.  The  philanthropists,  they  sneeringly  assert, 
are  stupidly  wasting  their  time  tinkering  at  effects 
which  the  same  causes,  still  left  uneradicated,  will  con- 
tinue to  produce.  Given  then,  along  with  the  radical 
temperament,  which  is  the  first  requisite  to  a  socialist, 
this  increasing  social  consciousness,  and  socialism  as  a 
doctrine  gets  a  new  impulse  and  a  greatly  improved 
chance  for  a  hearing. 

On  the  whole,. it  may  fairly  be  urged  that  in  France, 
whether  in  lettered  or  political  circles,  it  has  been  these 
ethical  and  political  causes,  rather  than  economic  un- 
rest, which  have  predisposed  so  many  persons  to  social- 
ism. It  is  not  so  much  the  hope  of  socializing  indus- 
try which  attracts  adherents  to  the  new  cause  as  it  is 
the  hope  of  a  better  political  order.  But  the  hope  of 
socializing  industry  is  in  France,  as  in  other  countries, 
coming  to  denote  the  content  of  the  idea  of  a  better 
political  order;  and  this  hope,  steadily  planted  and 
nourished,  is  now  no  mean  second  to  the  dream  of  a 
democratic  government  and  a  democratic  society. 


260       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

III. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  political  doctrine  of  so- 
cialism means  more  to  the  Frenchmen  than  do  its 
economic  arguments.  This  is  not,  however,  to  say  that 
there  have  not  been  important  economic  changes  in 
French  life,  and  that  these  have  not  brought  appreciable 
and  important  results.  It  is  true  mechanical  production 
in  France  is  in  no  such  advanced  state  as  it  is  in  Eng- 
land, or  even  in  Germany.  The  French  economic  situa- 
tion is  materially  modified  by  the  natural  predisposition 
of  the  laborer  to  individualistic  production.  The 
French  workman,  by  temperament,  shuns  the  life  of 
the  factoryhand.  Excepting,  perhaps,  the  Parisians 
and  the  Lyonnese,  who  are  each  siii  generis,  Frenchmen 
of  the  working  class  are  easily  contented,  have  compara- 
tively modest  ideas  concerning  their  economic  and 
political  rights,  are  slow  to  organize,  and  give  them- 
selves reluctantly  to  highly-organized  industrial  enter- 
prises.^^ A  future  which  promises  the  position  of  an 
entrepreneur,  or  membership  in  a  corporation,  has  small 
charms  for  the  typical  French  laborer,  as  compared 
with  the  independence  and  ease  which  the  position  of 
small  master  or  small  shopkeeper  suggests  to  him  as 
the  reward  for  a  youth  of  labor.  In  a  word,  industrial- 
ism, in  practice  and  idea,  is  in  a  slightly  back- 
ward condition  in  France. 

Yet  even  though  that  remarkable  growth  and  al- 
teration of  economic  activity  which  have  characterized 
the  century,  has  touched  France  and  French  workmen 
in  a  lesser  degree  than  some  other  nations,  French 
life  has,  by  no  means,  failed  to  experience  the  results 

15  Se€  Belloc,  Danton,  p.  19. 


INCREASING  INTERDEPENDENCE,  261 

of  contemporary  changes  in  mechanical  production. 
Even  though,  in  a  slightly  less  advanced  stage  than  Eng- 
land, or  perhaps  even  Germany,  industrialism  has  come 
to  France  as  to  all  progressive  nations,  to  increase  the 
interdependence  of  the  elements  of  labor,  to  develop 
a  more  compact  organization  among  the  workers  and  to 
stir  in  the  whole  nation  an  unrest  born  of  a  more 
pronounced  desire  for  material  possessions. 

At  the  root  of  the  economic  evolution,  which  is  the 
characteristic  fact  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  every 
progressive  country  of  the  world,  is  the  prodigious  al- 
teration in  the  magnitude  and  methods  of  production,  a 
change  which  came  with  relative  swiftness,  as  men  dis- 
covered how  to  make  the  forces  of  Nature  replace  human 
effort.  The  beginnings  of  mechanical  production  be- 
long to  the  second  half  of -the  eighteenth  century;  the 
development  and  results  of  such  method  of  production 
go  to  make  the  most  original  contribution  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  to  the  history  of  civilization.  Mechani- 
cal production,  the  gift  of  the  eighteenth  to  the  nine- 
teenth, has  come  to  be  the  social  influence  from  which 
most  of  what  is  distinctive  of  the  nineteenth  century 
takes  its  rise.  What  the  slow  work  of  the  hands  did  a 
century  ago,  the  swift  forces  of  Nature,  guided  by  hu- 
man thought,  are  in  great  part  doing  to-day. 

Before  everything  else  the  machine,  wherever  it  has 
been  introduced,  has  brought  a  complete  revolution  in 
the  life  of  the  individual  worker.  It  is  common  knowl- 
edge that,  in  relation  to  each  laborer,  the  marked 
economic  fact  of  the  century  has  been  the  transfer  of 
the  center  of  social  production  from  the  household  to 


262       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

the  factory.  The  peasant  workman,  whose  industrial 
labors  were  carried  on  along  with  his  agricultural  and 
even  household  duties,  and  who,  himself,  brought  his 
wares  to  market,  is  fast  disappearing  before  the  opera- 
tive or  farmhand  who  brings  for  exchange,  not  the 
product  of  his  labor,  but  the  labor  itself.  The  contrast 
has  often  been  drawn  between  the  artisan  of  the  past, 
who  used  hand  and  implement  as  his  own  intellectual 
development  dictated,  and  the  operative  of  to-day  who 
watches  a  wheel  or  adjusts  a  crank;  the  sharp  dis- 
similarity in  the  two  pictures  has  as  often  excited  the 
most  opposite  commentaries.  We  owe  it  to  the  machine 
that  the  artisan  has  almost  entirely  given  way  to  the 
operative,  and  that  the  separation  of  function  in  the 
work  of  production  has  become  always  greater.  Not 
only  does  the  subdivision  of  trades  regularly  increase, 
not  only  has  the  separation  of  tasks  within  each  of  these 
trades  grown  continuously  more  minute;  in  each  trade 
and  all  trades  a  general  division,  as  of  an  industrial 
arm,  has  come  about.  Capitalist,  captain  of  industry, 
and  the  descending  grades  of  those  who  form  the  mass 
in  the  work  of  the  production,  separate  to-day  into 
something  like  regiments.  Each  graded  group  is  doing 
a  distinct  and  limited  work.  Under  the  influence  of  the 
new  methods  of  production,  the  cleavage  in  industrial 
society  is  rather  vertical  than  horizontal.  In  short,  be- 
fore there  can  be  produced  any  one  of  the  countless 
articles  which  the  world's  market  sets  forth  to-day,  the 
division  in  quantity  and  quality  of  labor,  which  has  gone 
before,  is  almost  as  infinite  as  the  quantity  produced. 
In  regard  to  the  more  important  departments  of  pro- 


INCREASING  INTERDEPENDENCE.  263 

ductive  effort,  the  factory  has  replaced  the  older  meth- 
ods of  manufacture,  with  the  result  of  organizing  the 
greater  part  of  industrial  activity  upon  a  large  scale 
and  markedly  specializing  the  occupation  of  each 
worker. 

That  this  specialization  and  extended  and  intensified 
organization  has,  of  necessity,  tremendously  increased 
the  interdependence  of  the  various  factors  in  this  in- 
dustrial domain,  is  patent  enough  at  first  glance.  The 
workman,  entrepreneur  or  capitalist,  each  by  himself,  is 
practically  impotent  to  complete  the  production  of  any 
article.  Also,  it  needs  no  proof  that  the  more  special- 
ized the  kind  of  labor  which  the  worker  brings  to  the 
work  of  production,  the  more  dependent  he  is  upon 
finding  a  place  ready  for  himself  in  order  that  he  may 
earn  his  living.  Labor  takes  on  varying  grades  of  de- 
pendence and  interdependence,  according  to  the  kind 
of  work  done  and  the  relation  of  the  laborer  to  the  ma- 
chine; according  to  the  social  condition  prevailing  in 
the  country  in  which  laborers  find  themselves,  or  ac- 
cording to  their  own  standard  of  comfort.  But  no  mat- 
ter what  the  variation  of  other  conditions,  the  fact  is 
undoubted  that,  with  only  a  difference  in  intensity, 
there  has  been  a  universally  increasing  interdependence 
of  all  the  factors  in  production. 

As  machinery  has  developed  and  altered  the  produc- 
tive power  of  each  community,  and  increased  the  inter- 
dependence of  each  individual  and  each  group,  so  it  is 
machinery  which  has  made  production  international 
and  added  thus  to  the  interdependence  of  workers  and 
the    interdependence  of   nations.     Nations  are  to-day 


264       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM, 

special  agents  for  the  production  of  special  commodities 
in  the  world-market,  as,  in  times  past,  the  individual 
performed  the  like  function  for  a  national  demand. 
More  and  more  fully  mastered,  steam  and  electricity 
have  given  us  those  means  for  swift  transportation 
which  have  made  the  Indies  and  America,  Australia  and 
England,  as  near  each  other  for  purposes  of  communi- 
cation as  the  city  of  Boston  was  to  that  of  Philadelphia 
a  century  ago.  Commercial  expansion  has  been  the 
means  of  more  efficient,  cheaper  and  greater  individual 
and  national  production,  has  helped  to  increase  and 
vary  the  supply  in  each  market,  and,  what  is  most  to 
the  point,  has  made  the  character  of  all  national  pro- 
duction closely  dependent  upon  a  fairly  unobstructed 
international  exchange.  It  is  due  to  the  power  of  ma- 
chinery that  men  are  now  accustomed  to  expect  that 
the  gifts  of  Nature  be  shifted  about  from  the  various 
parts  of  the  world  to  that  place  where  they  find  their 
highest  social  efficiency.  It  is  due  to  this  progress  of 
mechanical  production  that  all  great  nations  suffer  to  a 
certain  extent  when  famine  or  war  strikes  any  one  of 
them. 

This  increased  dependence  and  interdependence  in 
economic  activity  is  to  the  point  here,  not  so  much  be- 
cause it  is  one  of  the  important  results  of  mechanical 
production,  but  because  it  is  the  fact  upon  which  so- 
cialism dwells  most  in  its  argument  for  an  economic  or- 
ganization of  society.  If  the  dissatisfied  workmen  and 
their  leaders  insist  that  now  the  whole  heritage  of  the 
laborer  is  to  be  "  Lord  of  his  Hands,^^  and  that,  in  order 
to  the  use  of  even  this  slight  inheritance,  he  is  largely 


VALUE  OF  CONCERTED  ACTION.  265 

at  the  mercy  of  a  shifting  market  and  the  law  of  supply 
and  demand;  it  is  because,  in  the  tenets  of  socialism, 
the  many  are  held  to  have  become  dependent  upon  the 
few,  through  this  great  alteration  in  production.  Social- 
ism of  to-day,  in  France,  as  in  other  countries,  begins  its 
attack  upon  prevailing  institutions  by  accenting  the  de- 
pendence and  interdependence  which  the  machine  has 
certainly  brought  to  the  elements  of  labor;  the  whole 
socialistic  agitation  concerning  equality  of  opportunity 
begins  with  this  interdependence  for  which  the  machine 
is  responsible.  The  advent  of  mechanical  production 
has  changed  the  socialistic  attack  upon  society  from  a 
generalized  moralistic  complaining  to  a  special,  direct 
onslaught  upon  mechanical  production. 

Along  with  an  additional  interdependence  among 
workers,  mechanical  production  has  brought  a  closer 
organization,  and  thus  a  more  real  and  effective  solidar- 
ity, among  the  laboring  classes,  and  this  solidarity  has 
been  very  nearly  as  powerful  a  weapon  for  the  French 
socialists  as  it  has  been  for  socialists  in  other  countries. 

The  trades-union  shows  best  how  the  laborer  has 
learned  to  believe  in  organized  effort  and  organized 
production.  Trades-union  history  in  France  differs 
from  that  in  England  only  in  that  trades-unionism  in 
the  former  country  has  been  even  less  successful.  There 
have  been,  however,  for  more  than  a  half  century,  regu- 
lar organizations  of  workers,  which  have  offered  a  more 
or  less  able  resistance  to  the  capitalist.  In  France,  as 
in  other  countries,  the  workman's  sense  of  dependence 
has  developed  the  modern  trades-union ;  the  recent  fail- 
ure of  these  unions  to  cope  with  the  great  monopolies 


266       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

has  made  the  workers  more  amenable  to  socialistic  argu- 
ments.   A  few  words  to  expand  this  idea. 

It  is  a  fact,  applicable  to  every  nation,  that  whatever 
bitterness  the  artisan  once  felt  for  the  machine  has 
now  been  transferred,  as  a  general  fact,  to  the  owner  of 
the  machine.  The  progress  of  the  century  has  seen  the 
intelligent  workman,  in  France  as  elsewhere,  change 
from  the  bitter  enemy  of  mechanical  contrivances  to 
the  most  ardent  advocate  of  highly-developed  forms  of 
mechanical  production.  Because  they  realize  the  su- 
perior value  of  using  the  forces  of  Nature,  the  laboring 
classes  now  aim  to  get  the  full  benefit  which  the  use 
of  those  forces  gives  to  society.  Almost  instinctively, 
workmen  banded  together  for  this  end,  and  through 
the  trades-unions  thus  developed,  the  laboring-classes 
have  learned  the  value  of  organizing  themselves  on 
democratic  principles  in  order  to  strive  for  the  best  in- 
terests of  each  workman.  From  this  growing  compre- 
hension of  the  value  of  collective  action,  the  laborer, 
along  with  a  new  hope,  got  a  new  idea  of  his  relation  to 
his  fellow. 

It  may  be  said  that  trades-unions,  established,  have 
given  the  workmen  a  new  kind  of  class  feeling.  The 
self-respecting  operative,  eagerly  aiming  at  the  uplift 
of  his  class,  is  the  new  type  of  mechanic  which  our 
times  has  developed.  Even  in  France,  the  best  work- 
men of  the  day  is  usually  the  trades-unionist,  who, 
generally  speaking,  is  far  less  anxious  to  enter  another 
industrial  grade  than  he  is  to  make  secure  the  full 
strength  of  his  class  as  a  party  in  a  bargaining  process, 
where  capital  buys  and  labor  sells.  The  final  dream 
of  the  most  radical  wage-earner,  who  is  not  a  Socialist, 


VALUE  OF  CONCERTED  ACTION.  267 

is  to  regulate  the  conditions  surrounding  the  hargain 
he  seeks  to  make,  so  that  certain  fixed  ideas  with  regard 
to  the  worker  shall  limit  the  blind  play  of  the  "  higgling 
of  the  market/^  If  this  is  the  case,  if  workmen  are  not 
so  much  eager  to  escape  from  the  class  to  which  they 
belong  as  they  are  anxious  to  establish  a  right  ad- 
justment of  the  relation  between  that  class  and  the 
class  on  which  they  depend  for  employment,  it  is  by 
reason  of  what  the  history  of  trades-unions  teaches 
them.  The  present  solidarity  of  the  workman,  in  all 
manufacturing  centers,  less  accented  in  France  than  in 
England,  yet  clearly  evident  there  too,  begins  with 
a  belief  in  the  necessity  of  concerted  class  action. 
Trades-unionism  has  been  an  educational  medium  which 
ha«  taught  him  how  valuable  such  action  is,  as  a  means 
to  limit  the  power  which  may  act  against  his  interests. 
The  French  workman  of  a  century  ago  was  part  of  a 
heterogeneous  mass;  the  trades-unions,  slowly  establish- 
ing themselves  in  spite  of  his  prejudices,^^  have  given 
him  the  conception  of  the  power  that  comes  from  the 
consciousness  of  numbers  and  unity  of  opinion. 

To  see  how  this  new  feeling  of  solidarity  and  a  new 
conception  of  its  worth  as  a  defensive  weapon  might 
help  socialistic  theory,  it  is  only  necessary  to  recall 
what  the  actual  economic  results  of  trades-unionism 
have  been.  In  the  progress  of  the  century  these  so- 
cieties have  often  been  able  to  oppose  to  the  capitalist  a 
power  as  strong  as  his  own,  both  in  monetary  equipment 
and  in  singleness  of  purpose.  But  on  the  whole,  the 
strongest  trades-unions  of  France  have  not  been  able 
to  cope  with  a  strong  capitalistic  monopoly;  and  now 

16  See  "  Compagnon  du  Tour  de  France,"  of  George  San^, 


268  MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

the  frequent  failure  of  the  greatest  trades-unions  of 
England,  when  face  to  face  with  the  big  trusts  or  a  rail- 
road system,  is  making  a  formidable  argument  for  so- 
cialistic propaganda.  Trade-unionists,  even  when  not 
entirely  successful,  have  learned  to  believe  in  the  idea 
which  prompts  the  unions.  They  have  learned  to  pin 
all  their  hopes  for  a  decent  living  wage  upon  the  power 
that  a  class  can  exert  by  acting  collectively.  When 
the  form  of  collective  action  on  which  they  depend 
leads  to  nothing,  they  listen  more  readily  to  schemes 
which  propose  as  immediate  policy  nothing  more  than 
the  extension  of  their  particular  methods  of  action  to 
the  whole  of  the  economic  field,  and  promise  finally  to 
remove  entirely  all  necessity  for  any  defensive  move- 
ment. In  this  way,  even  in  France,  where  they 
have  had  least  force,  it  seems  fair  to  argue  that 
trades-unions  have  indirectly  been  an  effective  aid  to 
socialism.  Mechanical  production,  making  for  the 
necessity  of  trades-unionism,  has  developed  a  solidarity 
of  the  working  classes  and  an  appreciation  of  the  ex- 
pediency of  solidarity,  out  of  which  socialism  has  not 
been  slow  to  make  capital. ^"^  In  France,  increasing 
numbers  of  trades-unionists,  who  are  usually  last  of 
all  workmen  to  become  at  odds  with  the  social  order, 
are  yearly  going  over  to  the  socialistic  party.^® 

The  last  fact  to  be  accented  in  this  attempt  to  trace 
the  relation  between  the  development  of  mechanical  pro- 
duction and  the  character  and  progress  of  socialistic 
theory  in  France,  is  the  psychological  result  of  changed 
industrial  conditions.    Beside  increasing  the  dependence 

17  Comp.  Deville,  op.  cit.  pp.  187  et  seq. 
isComp.  Coubertin:  France  under  the   Third  Republic,  p. 
398,  and  pp.  400-402. 


STIMULATED  DESIRE.  2^9 

of  the  laborer  and  making  him  more  conscious  of  that 
dependence,  industrialism  has  aided  to  develop  the 
unrest  which  is  prerequisite  to  socialism,  while  at  the 
same  time  it  has  altered  the  ideal  of  socialists. 

In  France,  as  in  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world,  the 
saving  and  division  of  labor,  which  the  machine  has 
made  possible,  is  a  parallel  fact  to  the  gigantic  increase 
in  the  power  of  production  which  it  has  also  brought; 
as  a  result  of  mechanical  production  we  have  to-day  a 
world-market,  teeming  with  what  seems  to  be  an  un- 
limited supply  of  consumption  goods.  It  is  a  striking 
proof  of  the  social  force  of  the  machine  that  the  nine- 
teenth century  is  the  age  of  production  on  a  large  scale, 
with  a  consequent  increase  in  the  numerical  output  of 
each  kind  of  product  and  the  enormously  developed 
power  for  stimulating  the  social  desire.  And  it  is  this 
intensified  social  desire  which  is  here  the  important 
point. 

It  is  of  first  importance,  in  tracing  the  material 
causes  of  socialism  in  France,  to  note  the  effect  of  an 
enlarged  supply  upon  the  individual  and  social  demand. 
Wherever  it  has  become  part  of  the  national  life  of  a 
country,  the  machine,  with  its  remarkable  consequences, 
has  not  only  enabled  producers  to  supply  a  demand  more 
readily;  what  is  most  to  the  point,  it  has  enabled  them 
to  create  a  demand.  N'ew  methods  of  production  have 
intensified  and  extended  the  needs  of  each  and  every 
member  of  society.  Each  of  those  additional  wares 
which  the  market  now  offers  has  created  a  want  as  often 
as  it  has  supplied  one.  The  word  necessaries  includes 
more  and  finer  things  than  it  did  in  the  days  when 
Montesquieu  and  Eousseau  used  it.    The  frame  of  mind 


270       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM, 

which  comes  to  count  these  necessaries  essential  to  con- 
tentment is  one  which,  under  the  influence  of  a  demo- 
cratic environment,  reaches  daily  to  wider  and  wider 
circles.  What  has  been  aptly  called  the  '^  principle  of 
conspicuous  waste  ^^^^  has,  during  the  century,  had  fuller 
play  than  ever  before.  And  the  influence  has  been  all 
along  the  line.  No  fact  is  more  striking  to  the  econo- 
mist than  the  extension  in  the  scale  of  wants,  not  only 
in  the  wants  of  the  well-to-do,  but  more  particularly 
in  those  of  the  laboring  classes.  New  conceptions  of 
comfort,  new  desires,  have  awakened  in  the  laborer  as 
in  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  workman  or  his  family 
at  the  present  time  needs  only  to  pass  the  shop-windows 
or  to  glance  at  the  newspaper,  filled  with  flaring  prom- 
ises of  cheap  and  varied  commodities,  in  order  to  have 
new  desires  start  to  life.  When  one  recalls  the  addi- 
tional possibilities  for  development  which  modern  life 
offers  even  in  the  working  classes;  when  it  is  remem- 
bered how  easy  is  the  access  to  what  the  rostrum,  litera- 
ture and  even  travel  may  teach,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
the  worker,  as  well  as  the  leisured  member  of  society, 
has  come  to  have,  if  not  a  higher,  at  any  rate  a  different 
standard  of  life.  The  complete  alteration  in  the  ex- 
tent and  intensity  of  demand  which  have  resulted  from 
the  change  in  mechanical  production  seems  undoubted. 
This  widened  demand  has  undoubtedly  tended  to  add 
to  the  individual  "ind  social  unrest.  France,  like  other 
nations,  represents  to-day  a  people  of  more  pronounced 
materialistic  ideals  than  those  of  the  generation  which 
preceded  it;  and  in  France,  as  elsewhere,  old  activities 

i9Veblin:  Theory    of    the    Leisure    Classes,    ed.    Maemillan, 
1899,  ch  iv,  especially  pp.  97  et  seq. 


STIMULATED  DESIRE.  2ll 

have  given  place  to  new.  Since  Louis  Philippe's  reign 
brought  power  into  the  hands  of  the  bourgeoisie,  a  com- 
mercial spirit,  and  all  it  brings  with  it,  has  become  part 
of  the  general  sentiment.  On  account  of  the  native 
conservatism  of  the  provincial  Frenchman,  the  convic- 
tion that  many  utilities  formerly  undreamed  of  are  es- 
sential to  a  refined  or  even  respectable  life,  has  not 
penetrated  so  swiftly  into  the  mass  of  French  life  as  it 
has  in  some  other  countries,  but  in  France  too,  men 
have  now  come  to  strive  towards  ideals  different  from 
those  which  prompted  the  efforts  of  the  past.  The  na- 
tional ideal  of  glory  increased  by  conquest  and  acces- 
sion of  territory  slowly  but  surely  yields  place  to  the 
ideal  of  commercial  supremacy,  just  as  the  individual 
idea  of  honor  by  way  of  birth  and  territorial  possession 
has  so  often  given  place  to  the  desire  to  amass  vast 
fortunes  and  play  a  prominent  part  in  the  manipulation 
of  the  money  market.  A  certain  class  of  Frenchmen 
cling  fondly  to  the  "  art  ideal "  and  to  past  notions  of 
honor  and  conscience,  but  the  spirit  of  the  age  has  in 
no  way  left  France  untouched.  The  Frenchman  is  '^  in- 
dustrially awakened ''  in  spite  of  his  temperament.  The 
struggle  for  mere  existence,  whether  in  its  purely  brute 
aspect,  or  in  its  military  phase,  has  long  since  given 
place  to  the  struggle  to  shape  existence  on  a  given  plane 
of  physical  ease  and  enjoyment,  and  that  plane,  under 
modifying  influences,  is  steadily  moving  upward  to  a 
higher  level.  It  may  safely  be  asserted  that  in  France, 
as  in  other  parts  of  Europe,  more  and  more  persons 
have  learned  to  count  earthly  possessions  as  the  means 
to  position  and  happiness,  and  thus  to  make  the  sum 
of  living  an  unending  and  ugly  fight  for  such  holdings. 


272  MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

The  conceptions  which  go  along  with  the  word  "  happi- 
ness^' have  everywhere,  during  this  century,  come  to 
be  more  and  more  dependent  upon  a  large  material 
holding. 

In  the  necessities  of  human  nature,  some  must  fail 
to  find  satisfaction  for  this  newly  awakened  and  multi- 
form desire.  Because  of  incapacity,  physical  or  mental, 
because  of  misfortune,  environment,  or  any  other  of  the 
numerous  checks  which  come  to  prevent  the  equal  de- 
velopment and  activity  of  each  member  of  a  community, 
there  are  many  for  whom  the  new  possibilities  mean 
only  a  widened  sense  of  deprivation  or  an  accented  dis- 
content consequent  to  non-possession.  On  the  other 
hand,  because  of  the  permanence  of  the  temperament 
which  is  particularly  sensitive  to  the  idea  of  equity,  a 
temperament  always  especially  evident  in  France,  the 
larger  enjoyment  of  the  successful  seems  to  make  deeper 
and  darker  the  gulf  into  which  the  laggard  or  the  un- 
fortunate has  fallen.  The  increased  product  made  pos- 
sible by  mechanical  improvements  has  brought  about  a 
marked  social  unrest  by  way  of  a  widened  and  intensi- 
fied belief  in  the  power  of  material  things  to  bring  hap- 
piness. The  result  of  this  has  been  to  increase  the  feel- 
ing of  the  discontented  and  to  intensify  the  acrimony 
of  those  who  believe  in  social  equality.  Either  one  of 
these  results  has  had  an  effect  and  has  argued  for  the 
acceptation  of  the  doctrines  of  socialism. 

In  the  first  place,  socialistic  theories  always  get  their 
inspiration  from  times  of  social  unrest.  An  appreciable 
socialistic  movement  is,  in  a  way,  conditioned  by  some 
sort  of  social  discontent.  If  it  be  true  that  mechani- 
cal production  has  been  able  in  France,  as  elsewhere, 
to  discredit  the  old  standard  which  held  that  a  man 


STIMULATED  DESIRE.  273 

should  not  strive  for  what  he  has  not;  if  mechanical 
production  has  taught  men  to  scout  those  who  depre- 
cate as  mistaken  all  such  efforts  as  would  lift  the  clod 
above  the  soil  on  which  he  was  born,  then  mechanical 
production,  like  democracy,  has  certainly  made  for  the 
growth  of  socialistic  theory  in  some  form.  So,  too,  if 
industrialism  has  centered  the  general  opinion  upon  the 
idea  of  larger  possessions  as  a  prerequisite  to  happiness, 
it  has  made  for  ideals  which  count  happiness  to  be  con- 
ditioned by  material  possessions,  and  this  is  the  point 
of  view  that  modern  French  Socialism  has  adopted  un- 
der the  direct  influence  of  industrialism. 

Industrialism  has  been  then  a  real  influence  in  putting 
a  distinctive  character  upon  the  nineteenth  century  stand- 
ards, even  in  France,  where  the  keen  interest  in  political 
theory  and  practice,  and  the  natural  tendency  to  be 
"  doctrinaire  ^'  has  modified  its  influence  in  comparison 
with  other  countries.  Because  of  the  labor  relations  it 
has  created,  because  of  the  stronger  class-feeling  it  has 
engendered  and  the  keener  desire  for  worldly  prosperity 
it  has  stimulated,  industrialism  has  sensibly  changed 
the  character  of  public  opinion.  It  has  evidently  most 
directly  affected  the  working-classes,  whom  it  has  made 
more  conscious  of  their  economic  dependence,  more 
alive  to  the  power  they  might  have  if  they  could  become 
entirely  united  among  themselves,  and  has  finally  made 
them  more  eager  to  win  entire  political  power  in  order 
that  they  may  enjoy  that  vastly  increased  store  of  com- 
modities which  the  productive  facilities  of  the  natioa 
can  now  supply. 

18 


274       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM, 

Reviewing  thus  rapidly,  the  leading  facts  of  the  cen- 
tury's history  in  France,  we  find  that  a  new  sentiment  in 
regard  to  all  existence  arose  in  response  to  the  impulse 
given  by  the  new  place  accorded  to  science  and  its  teach- 
ings; that  the  political  ideal  of  democracy  bequeathed 
by  an  earlier  theory  has  both  acted  as  a  stimulus  to 
rebellion  against  the  established  and  somewhat  inef- 
fective methods  of  government,  and  has  made  for  a 
readiness  to  catch  at  other  plans  for  government  which, 
though  in  line  with  the  ideal,  are  yet  in  a  radical, 
not  a  reactionary  spirit,  opposed  to  the  existing  govern- 
ment. We  note  further  that  the  economic  evolution 
has  touched  France,  too,  with  a  Midas  touch,  and  that 
there  has  arisen  in  response  to  it  a  class  of  which  an 
appreciable  portion  asks,  in  no  unequivocal  terms,  for 
a  radical  alteration  in  social  relations.  Finally  these 
changes  in  social  institutions  and  in  general  stand- 
ards have  helped  to  give  a  specific  character  to 
modern  French  socialism  and  to  prepare  many  minds 
for  the  reception  and  propagation  of  its  doctrines. 


IV. 


The  final  impulse,  which  developed  and  strength- 
ened these  early  socialistic  theories,  that  were  fos- 
tered by  facts  of  social  growth,  came  from  another 
country  than  France.  In  this  resume  of  the  facts  of 
social  life,  which  have  had  a  bearing  upon  the  character 
of  socialism  in  France,  a  word  must  be  said  regarding  the 
well-known  fact  of  an  international  movement  led  by 
men  who  were  remarkable  politicians  as  well  as  strong 
thinkers. 


MARX   AND   ENGELS.  275 

After  the  Eevolution  of  1848,  in  face  of  the  failure 
of  the  national  workshops  and  the  severe  legislation 
which,  for  many  years,  Napoleon  III  directed  against 
all  social  agitation,  socialism  as  an  active  movement 
drops  out  of  sight  in  France.  The  theory  as  well 
seemed  of  so  little  importance,  that  Gambetta  con- 
sidered himself  to  be  stating  a  truth  when  he  declared 
that  in  the  France  of  his  time  there  was  no  social  ques- 
tion. When,  however,  the  amnesty  of  1879  permitted 
the  banished  communists  to  return,  it  was  found  that 
socialism  had  gathered  a  force  greater  than  ever  be- 
fore. No  longer  a  philosophy  or  a  cult  upheld  by  a  few 
enthusiasts,  who,  in  the  hope  of  realizing  their  ideal, 
formed  themselves  into  small  communities  or,  at  best, 
had  joined  in  the  political  fight  of  the  most  radical 
party  of  the  times,  socialism  had  rapidly  become  a 
political  party  standing  by  itself,  a  party  whose  aims 
were  grounded  upon  a  combative  social  philosophy. 
And  this  was  true  largely  because  the  banished  com- 
munists had  come  home  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  ten- 
ets of  Marxism. 

If  the  fact  most  distinctive  of  the  later  history  of 
nineteenth  century  socialism  all  over  the  world  is 
a  swift  and  steady  growth  toward  unity  of  aim  and 
action,  accompanied  by  an  appreciable  increase  in  the 
number  of  adherents  to  the  doctrine,  this  fact  is  fairly 
attributable  to  the  men  who  first  inspired  the  modem 
German  movement.  The  history  of  the  rise  and  fall 
of  the  International  and  of  the  development  of  those 
workingmen's  congresses,  which,  meeting  every  few 
years  since  1847,  have  taken  on  an  increasingly  social- 
istic and  corporative  character,  is  really  the  tale  of  the 


276       MODERN  FRENCB  SOCIALISM. 

gradual  spread  of  a  single  social  theory,  not  entirely 
new  by  any  means,  but  given  an  altered  form  by  two 
men,  Karl  Marx  and  Friedrich  Engels.  The  slow,  but 
sure,  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  first  put  forward  by 
these  able  tacticians,  who  rapidly  became  the  chiefs  of 
an  international  movement,  marks  the  turning-point 
of  all  modern  socialistic  theory  and  practice.  It  is 
due  in  great  part  to  the  brains  and  strategic  capacity 
of  Marx  and  Engels^^  that  the  spirit  of  revolt  against 
the  accepted  social  order  is  no  longer  in  any  country, 
at  least  as  regards  its  more  pronounced  forms,  a  segre- 
gated communal  movement,  but  is  rather  a  politi<5al 
organization  which  sends  out  its  branches  to  the  four 
corners  of  the  earth.  Marxism,  for  so  the  theory 
adopted  under  the  influence  of  these  two  men  is  gen- 
erally called,  has  been  well  named  the  centripetal  force 
of  socialistic  theory.^*  Whatever  of  disrepute  may 
jugtly,  and  with  cumulatively  convincing  evidence  have 
fallen  upon  the  social  philosophy  and  especially  upon 
the  economic  theory  of  Marx,  the  history  of  socialism 
during  the  past  fifty  years  has  established  beyond  dis- 
pute his  force  and  capacity  as  a  leader  of  men.    As  a 

20  It  seems  certain  that  Ferdinand  Lassalle,  influential  for 
the  cause  of  socialism  though  he  was  in  his  own  country,  has 
had  little  or  no  influence  in  France.  Lassalle  led  a  national, 
not  an  international,  movement;  the  real  aim  of  his  life  and 
teachings  was  the  political  emancipation  of  the  German  ar- 
tisan. (Comp.  Russell,  German  Social  Democracy,  ed.  1897, 
p.  41  et  seq.)  His  writings  have,  therefore,  a  sectional  and 
special  bearing,  and  to-day  get  comparatively  no  notice  from  the 
French  Marxists.  For  this  reason,  Lassalle's  name  is  omitted 
here;  not  because  his  share  in  the  beginnings  of  the  German 
movement  is  forgotten  or  underestimated. 

21  Werner-Sombart.  Le  Socialisme  et  le  Mouvement  social 
au  XIXe  si&ele,  p.  83,  ed.  Paris,  1898. 


MARX  AND   ENGEL8,  277 

power  to  concentrate  and  organize  an  international  so- 
cialistic movement,  the  writings  of  Marx  have  been  of 
first  importance. 

Above  everything  else,  the  Marxian  movement  was 
characterized  by  an  unswerving  effort  in  a  single  di- 
rection. After  the  first  statement  of  their  creed  in  the 
celebrated  Manifesto  of  1847,  Marx  and  Engels  always 
held  firmly  to  one  theory,  a  theory  that  subordinates 
the  national  claim  and  elevates  the  individual  and  class 
right  to  first  place;  and  this  fact,  taken  together  with 
their  masterly  appreciation  of  the  value  of  dialectic,  and 
their  capacity  to  adapt  the  older  socialistic  moral  phi- 
losophy with  cleverness  and  dispatch  to  the  scientific 
methods  adopted  in  their  time,  has  been  the  chief  rea- 
son why  they  have  meant  so  much  to  their  cause.  Both 
men  use  their  brilliant  powers  as  writers  and  their  un- 
doubted talent  in  argument  to  draw  from  the  facts  of 
reality  such  data  as  would  seem  to  prove  the  most  popu- 
lar of  the  propositions  of  the  early  French  socialists, 
and  though  they  claim  much  for  dispassionate  analytic 
method,  neither  logic  nor  positive  fact  has  been  so 
strictly  observed  but  that  a  bitter  indignation  at  exist- 
ing circumstances  and  a  passionate  espousal  of  the 
cause  of  the  proletarian,  makes  itself  plain  for  those  to 
whom  such  feelings  mean  more  than  syllogism  or 
scientific  data.  This  firm  support  of  a  single  theory 
and  clear  appreciation  of  the  power  of  class-feeling  as 
against  national  feeling,  together  with  an  ardent  sym- 
pathy for  the  laborer  and  the  unemployed,  have  un- 
doubtedly been  the  distinctive  qualities  which  have  won 
and  kept  for  Marx  and  Engels  the  place  they  hold  to- 
day among  most  classes  of  socialists.    From  these  two 


278  MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

men  came  the  movement  whicli  has  strengthened  social- 
ism by  way  of  unifying  it. 

If,  then,  French  socialism  has  taken  on  an  undoubt- 
edly militant  aspect,  the  fact  is  in  great  part  directly 
due  to  the  rise  and  spread  of  the  doctrines  of  Karl  Marx 
and  Friedrich  Engels.  Nowhere,  outside  its  native  land, 
has  the  "  dazzling  scientific  pathos  '^  of  the  Marxian 
theory  found  wider  or  more  entire  acceptance  than  in 
modern  France.  This  is  the  case  with  so  little  qualifi- 
cation that  the  most  effective  branch  of  the  French  so- 
cialistic movement  of  the  day,  calls  itself  impartially 
"  Scientific  Socialism  "  or  "  Marxism,^'  and  the  theory 
that  it  puts  forward  in  polemic  and  pamphlet  is  only 
Marx  diluted  and  popularized.  Though  a  section  of 
French  socialism,  as  will  presently  be  shown,  follows  in 
method  and  theory,  the  line  of  French  tradition,  the 
more  prominent  part  of  the  current  doctrine  claims  to 
be  only  an  exposition  of  the  principles  of  Marx  and 
Engels.  At  the  hands  of  French  disciples,  these  theories 
undergo  certain  modifications,  but,  in  intention  at  least, 
much  of  French  socialism  is  to-day  imported  doctrine. 
The  exact  character  of  the  theory  which  Marxism  seeks 
to  imitate  need  not  be  discussed  to  any  extent  here;  it 
would  be  beside  the  point  to  give  the  doctrines  of  Karl 
Marx,  except  as  they  are  interpreted  in  France.  In  this 
connection,  it  is  only  of  moment  to  remember  that  the 
French  movement  derives  whatever  of  political  activity 
it  represents  to-day  in  great  part  from  the  international 
movement  led  by  Marx  and  Engels. 

Finally,  a  few  words  regarding  the  present  politi- 
cal organization  of  the  party.  It  is  the  custom  in 
French  socialistic  circles  to  date  the  beginnings  of  the 


PARTY  ORGANIZATION  OF  TO-DAY.  2Y9 

latest  movement  in  France,  the  so-called  "  proletarian 
movement/'  from  March,  1871,  the  date  of  that  memor- 
able and  bloody  encounter  known  as  the  rise  of  the 
Paris  Commune,  an  uprising  so  variously  reported  by 
the  several  political  factions  of  France.  But  though 
this  may  be  the  date  at  which  the  numbers  holding  to 
socialistic  theory  again  demonstrated  themselves,  the 
movement  did  not  become  a  real  political  organization 
until  several  years  later.  The  third  French  republic 
was  fairly  established  before  the  new  socialism  began 
to  make  itself  evident  as  a  factor  of  French  political 
life. 

In  1879,  the  socialists  effected  a  political  organization, 
and  contemporary  French  socialism  became  a  fixed  doc- 
trine.^^  In  that  year,  two  enthusiastic  Marxists,  Paul 
Lafargue  and  Jules  Guesde,  presented  a  collectivist 
Program  to  the  Workingman's  Congress  which  met  at 
Marseilles.  After  a  bitter  contest,  which,  however,  con- 
cluded in  a  vote  of  73  to  27,  the  Congress  accepted  the 
Program,  which  has  since,  with  slight  variation,  been 
that  of  the  party .^^ 

Since  1879,  each  succeeding  congress  has  seen  some 
subdivision  of  the  party  into  factions,  which  take  issue 
with  certain  articles  of  the  program.  The  differences 
seem  to  be  for  the  most  part  on  questions  of  tactics.  In 
1880,  the  separation  was  into  two  factions,  the  ^^Pos- 
sibilists,"  and  the  "  Guesdists  "  or  *^  Parti  Ouvrier  So- 

22  It  was  not  until  1893  that  the  French  socialists  became 
a  distinct  political  party.  Comp.  Coubertin.  France  under 
the  third  Republic,  p.  396. 

23  For  a  Chronological   histoiy  of  themovement,   see   "  Le 
icialisme  et  le  mouvement  social  ai 

Sombart,  p.  168  et  seq.     Paris,  1898. 


280       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

cialiste  Revolutionnaire ;  ^^  in  1881,  at  the  Congress  of 
St.  Etienne,  the  Possibilists  again  split  into  the  Brous- 
sists,  Marxists,  Blanquists  and  the  AUemanists.  At 
present^^  the  sections  of  the  party  are  "  la  Confederation 
des  Socialistes  Independants/'  of  whom  Jaures,  Labus- 
quiere  and  De  Pressense  are  the  best  known  among  the 
leaders ;  "  la  Federation  des  travailleurs  socialistes  de 
France,"  who  recognize  Paul  Brousse  as  Director;  the 
Parti  Ouvrier  frangais,  with  Guesde  and  Gabriel  Ber- 
trand  at  its  head ;  "  the  Parti  ouvrier  aocialiste  revolu- 
tionnaire,"  of  whom  Allemane  is  still  the  accredited 
chief,  and  the  "Parti  Socialiste  revolutionnaire,'^  of 
whom  Vaillant  is  the  most  conspicuous  representative. 
The  names  of  the  groups  suggest  the  character  of  their 
separation ;  all,  except  the  "  Socialistes  Independants," 
are  practically  agreed  as  to  the  fundamental  Marxian 
principles,  and  may,  without  inaccuracy,  be  compre- 
hended under  the  name  of  scientific  socialists. 

The  so-called  '^  Integral  Socialism,"  which  is  the  kind 
advocated  by  the  "  Socialistes  Independants,"  dates 
from  1885,  when  Benoit  Malon  founded  the  "  Societe 
d'Economie  Sociale,"  a  society  that  at  once  became  the 
center  of  Independent  or  Integral  socialism.  The  as- 
sociation formulated  a  program  which  professed  to 
broaden  and  humanize  Marx.  The  pretension  of  the 
group  gave  great  offense  to  the  rest  of  the  party,  and 
the  new  society  was,  for  a  long  time,  the  cause  of  much 
contention.  By  the  Scientific  Socialists,  Integral  So- 
cialism was  brushed  aside  as  good  enough  for  Free- 
masons and  spiritualists;  it  is  even  yet  sometimes  as- 

24 March  19,  1899.  See  "La  Petite  R§publiqu«,"  of  that 
date. 


PARTY  PROGRAM,  ^31 

serted  more  energetically  than  elegantly,  that,  in  as- 
piring to  found  a  school  to  perfect  Marxism,  Malon  "  a 
voulu  eternuer  plus  haut  que  le  nez/^^^  But,  as  has 
been  said,  the  two  schools  are  not  now  politically  an- 
tagonistic. The  Independent  Socialists  know  how  to 
forget  domestic  differences  in  face  of  an  opposing  politi- 
cal majority;  and  to-day,  it  may  safely  be  said,  that, 
separated  though  they  may  be  on  questions  of  funda- 
mental theory,  these  two  groups  are  willing  to  work  har- 
moniously for  a  party  program  which  fairly  embodies 
the  immediate  aims  of  all. 

The  party  program  of  the  present  day  stands,  on  the 
whole,  for  peaceful  measures,  but  for  unswerving  politi- 
cal and  propagandist  activity  in  the  pursuit  of  their 
ends.  The  socialism  that  the  party  advocates  is  said 
to  be  evolutionary;  it  is  only  revolutionary  under  a 
definition  which  holds  revolution  to  be  "  the  character- 
istic crisis  that  terminates  effectively  a  period  of  evolu- 
tion;'^ it  is  "a  rupture  with  the  established  order."^® 
Although  the  distinction  between  this  and  ordinary 
definitions  of  revolt  is  a  little  hard  to  make  out»  it 
seems  that  the  present  intentions  are  really  pacific.  It 
is  believed  that  the  social  movement  must  progress  to 
its  goal  by  a  period  of  conscious  preparation.  This 
means  that  there  is  to  be  a  political  struggle,  and  those 
who  make  the  struggle  are,  above  all,  to  organize  the 
lower  classes  for  mutual  enlightenment  as  to  the  end  of 
the  agitation  they  are  making,  and  the  best  means  for 
attaining  that  end.    This  effort  is  called  developing  the 

25  Com  p.  Deville,  op.  cit.  p.  xxiv  (Preface),  where,  in  the 
pages  that  follow,  the  objections  of  the  Marxists  to  Malon 
are  pretty  well  sumTned  up. 

26Deviile.    Principes  Socialistes,  pp.  73,  74. 


282       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

spirit  of  "  solidarity/'  and  one  of  the  chief  aids  to  the 
growth  of  this  necessary  sentiment  is  said  to  be  inter- 
nationalism.^ The  "  political  machine  "  is  indicated  as 
the  first  object  for  attack,  and  the  aim  is  to  get  pos- 
session of  it  as  soon  as  legitimate  means  will  permit. 
The  '^  mot  d'ordre  "  is  "  political  expropriation  in  order 
to  economic  expropriation."^^  According  to  the  party 
program  it  has  been  resolved  "  energetically  to  maintain 
legality  within  the  nation  and  peace  without,  but  just 
as  energetically  is  it  decided  not  to  tolerate  the  least 
deviation  from  the  present  situation."^  The  party  has 
settled  upon  the  following  demands,  which,  gradually 
obtained  for  a  public  growing  steadily  more  intelligent, 
shall  on  the  one  hand  do  away  with  the  old  order,  and 
on  the  other,  inaugurate  the  new.  The  articles  are 
separated  into  political  and  economic  demands. 

Political  changes  asked  for  at  once,  include  demands 
for  fuller  individual  rights,^®  for  the  disavowal  of  re- 

27  It  is  always  insisted  that  Internationalism  does  not  mean 
anti-nationalism  (Comp.  e.  g.  Jaur§s,  Patriotisme  et  Inter- 
nationalisme,  passim;  also,  Deville,  op.  cit.  pp.  79-81).  Inter- 
nationalism is  held  to  mean  peace  and  concurrence  of  effort  be- 
tween nations,  not  the  disappearance  of  nations.  Internation- 
alism is  counted  as  an  important  means  for  a  general  coopera- 
tion of  the  productive  classes.  One  socialist  ( Renard,  "  Regime 
socialiste,"  in  Revue  social  iste,  tome  26,  p.  524)  defines  four 
kinds  of  Internationalism,  making  either  negatively  or  posi- 
tively for  socialism :  ( 1 )  Black  internationalism,  or  that  of 
the  priesthood:  (2)  Red  internationalism,  or  that  of  the 
proletaire;  (3)  Yellow  internationalism,  or  that  of  finan- 
ciers;   (4)    White  internationalism,  or  that  of  intellect. 

28  Program  du  Parti  Ouvrier,  1894. 

29  Ibid.     See,  also,  Deville. 

30  Perfect  freedom  of  the  press ;  freedom  of  association ; 
greater  mobility  of  labor  with  which  the  livret  and  necessity 
of  reference  is  now  said  to  interfere;  perfect  equality  before 
the  law,  not  only  for  men,  but  the  same  law  for  men  and 
women. 


PARTY  PROGRAM.  283 

ligion  by  the  state,^^  for  state  seizure  of  church  lands/^ 
for  the  abolition  of  the  public  debt,^^  and  for  the  in- 
auguration of  local  self-government.^^  Under  the  head 
of  economic  changes,  there  is  a  long  list  of  moderately 
radical  articles.  Immediate  legislation  is  asked  for  con- 
cerning labor-time/^  child-labor/^  wages/'^  obligatory 
provisions  for  minors, ^^  and  for  all  the  old  and  inca- 
pable. Legislation  to  protect  the  interests  of  the  work- 
ing classes  is,  of  course,  of  particular  moment.  For  in- 
stance, it  is  asked  that  a  law  be  at  once  enacted  by 
which  employers  shall  be  made  responsible  for  accidents 
to  workmen,  and  that,  as  surety  against  such  accidents, 
each  employer  shall  be  obliged  to  place  in  the  work- 
ing-men's bank,  a  deposit  proportionate  to  the  number 
of  workmen  he  employs  and  to  the  dangers  which  the  in- 
dustry represents.  Finally  a  new  tax  law  is  asked  for, 
which  shall  make  provision  for  the  abolition  of  all  indi- 

31  The  state  religion  is  to  be  abolished ;  the  excuse  for  the 
budget  of  cults  is  said  to  have  long  since  passed  away. 

32  This  is  the  first  step,  it  is  said,  to  the  appropriation  of 
capital. 

33  The  public  debt  is  said  to  give  unproductive  wealth  the 
power  to  grow  without  undergoing  the  risks  and  difficulties 
inseparable  from  its  industrial  use,  and  hence  it  should  be 
abolished. 

34  It  is  asked  that  each  commune  be  made  entirely  mistress 
of  its  administration  and  its  police. 

35  Law  to  interdict  more  than  six  days'  labor  per  week,  and 
to  establish  an  eight-hour  labor  day. 

36  Children  under  fourteen  to  be  forbidden  to  labor,  and 
minors  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  to  be  allowed  to  labor 
only  six  hours. 

37  Asks  for  an  annual  commission  of  labor  statistics,  to  de- 
termine the  legal  minimum  wage,  and,  further,  that  the  law 
forbid  the  employment  of  foreign  labor  at  a  salary  below  that 
given  to  French  workmen;  law  to  insure  to  all  laborers,  irre- 
spective of  sex,  equal  salary  for  equal  labor. 

38  Scientific  and  professional  training  fr^Q  for  ?ill  minora. 


284       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

rect  taxes  and  the  transformation  of  all  direct  taxes  to  a 
progressive  income  tax  on  incomes  over  20,000  francs. 
In  sum,  the  program  presents  little  variation  from  the 
programs  of  the  German^^  or  any  other  of  the  national 
Socialistic  parties. 

According  to  the  latest  election  returns,  the  party 
now  numbers  two  millions,  but  two  million  votes  will 
not  secure  the  majority  in  the  legislative  body,  and  to 
win  such  a  majority  all  the  strategic  energy  of  the  so- 
cialist leaders  is  turned  to-day.  But  the  same  agrarian 
question  which  puzzles  the  Germans  at  present  blocks 
in  an  even  more  formidable  way  the  progress  of  the 
French  movement.  It  so  happens  that  the  conquest  of 
the  peasant  is  the  chief  interest  of  contemporary  French 
Socialism,  and  to  win  this  peasant  is  not  an  easy  task. 

The  Frenchman  who  represents  the  agricultural  in- 
terests of  the  nation  is  aggressively  individualistic,  es- 
pecially in  his  well-known  eagerness  for  a  personal  hold- 
ing of  even  a  tiny  piece  of  land.  His  general  indiffer- 
ence to  politics  has  been  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the 
whole  republican  movement;  his  education,  or  lack  of 
it,  inclines  him  to  a  timid  conservatism;  except  in 
face  of  great  misery,  he  is  content  to  go  mildly  about 
his  daily  labors  on  his  tiny  holding  with  what  often 
seems  a  brutish  cheeriness.  The  thrift  that  makes  him 
the  object  of  general  admiration  at  the  same  time  nar- 
rows his  ambition  to  a  dream  of  the  "  comfortable,'' 
and  the  idea  of  what  that  word  comfortable  means  in- 
cludes even  to-day,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  an  astonish- 
ingly modest  scale  of    wants.      Proverbially  the  most 

39Comp.  ProtokoU  fiber  die  Verhandlungen  des  Parteitagea 
der  sozialdemokratischen  Partei  Deutschlandp,  Oct.  1896. 


PARTY  PROGRAM.  ^g5 

well-to-do  of  European  peasants,  there  is  little  to  rouse 
him  at  present  from  his  stolid  content  in  his  small  hold- 
ing and  limited  earnings  but  undoubted  savings.  The 
socialistic  movement  then  meets  with  a  difficult  prob- 
lem when  it  seeks  to  increase  its  following  beyond  the 
factory  towns.  In  the  eyes  of  those  who  believe  that  all 
compromise  with  the  "  petite  industrie  ^^  is  a  menace  to 
the  proletarian  movement,  the  French  peasant  now 
really  stands  in  the  way  of  the  movement.  The  nu- 
merical strength  of  the  ballot  is  in  the  agricultural  dis- 
tricts, where  the  small  farmer  and  the  artisan,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  factory-hand,  are  still  the  dominant 
types  of  industrial  life.  Now  the  success  of  the  social 
movement  requires  the  vote  of  these  persons;  and  yet, 
before  they  will  give  to  the  movement  any  sympathy 
such  as  will  insure  the  suffrage,  the  very  compromise 
in  the  doctrine  of  property-holding,  which  has  been  so 
much  dreaded,  has  been  found  necessary  and  has  been 
made.  Instead  of  an  uncompromising  demand  for  col- 
lective ownership  of  land,  French  Socialists  now  make 
a  careful  distinction  and  ask,  not  for  the  unqualified 
collective  ownership  of  land,  but  for  "  such  collective 
holding  of  land  as  shall  insure  to  the  collectivity  what- 
ever property  can  be  used  only  in  groups."^^  The  dis- 
cussions that  go  along  with  these  modifications  drop  the 
Marxian  point  of  view  in  relation  to  the  development 
of  production  on  a  large  scale,  and  suggest  that  only 
industry,  and  not  agriculture,  follows  the  law  of  con- 
centration of  capital,  and  that  small  farm  lands  are  not, 
therefore,  to  be  socialized.     The  socialistic  party  hope 

40  See  the  Programme  du  Parti  ouvrier,  p.  89,   ed.    Lille, 
1894,  Cf.,  also  Coubertin,  op.  cit.,  p.  401. 


286       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

thus  gradually  to  win  the  peasant  to  the  proletarian 
movement,  as  he  sees  held  out  to  him,  along  with  the 
possibility  of  continuing  to  hold  his  small  plot  of  land, 
the  prospect  of  a  more  direct  and  wide-reaching  share 
in  the  direction  of  communal  affairs  and  an  increased 
probability  of  personal  enjoyment. 

The  fact  that  the  present  socialistic  movement  is  so 
well  developed  as  a  political  party,  makes  the  principles 
which  are  behind  the  socialistic  agitation  take  on  a 
more  definite  interest.  As  has  been  said,  there  are  two 
schools  to  be  discussed,  the  Marxian  or  Scientific  So- 
cialists, and  the  Independent  or  Integral  Socialists. 
The  group  which  adheres  to  "  scientific  socialism ''  as- 
serts that  the  Marxian  doctrine  is  the  "  correct  inter- 
pretation of  social  life,  regarded  in  its  material  founda- 
tions and  in  the  diversity  of  its  manifestations  without 
neglecting  any  one  of  them.^'*^  Marxism  is  said  to  be 
"  the  only  socialism  which  counts.'^*^  Though  the  fact 
of  a  well-recognized  group  of  socialists  who  reject  Marx 
hardly  justifies  this  pretension  at  supremacy  on  the  part 
of  the  Marxists,  the  greatest  force  of  agitation  un- 
doubtedly comes  from  them,  and  it  is  the  principles  of 
their  party  which  are  possibly  the  best  known.  How- 
ever, notwithstanding  the  superior  capacity  of  the 
Marxists  for  making  a  noise  in  the  world,  the  doctrines 
of  the  other,  the  Integral  Socialists,  have  a  greater  in- 
terest, for  they  are  more  truly  French  and  less  baldly 
materialistic.  In  the  chapter  which  follows,  more  at- 
tention has,  therefore,  been  given  to  Integral  Socialism, 
even  though  the  predominating  political  force  of  Marx- 
ism is  recognized. 

41  D§ville.    Principes  socialistes,  pref .  p.  xiii,  ed.  Paris,  1896. 

42  Ibid,  pref.  p.  viii. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  FOR  CHAPTER  V,  287 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  FOR  CHAPTER  V. 
Adams.  Democracy  and  Monarchy  in  France,  ed.  Henry 
Holt  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1S75.— Blanc.  Histoire  de  Dix  Ans.,  ed. 
Pagnerre,  Paris,  1849. —  Bodley.  France,  ed.  Macmillan,  1898. 
—  Coubertin.  France  under  the  third  republic,  ed.  Crowell 
&  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1897. —  Cunningham.  Growth  of  English  In- 
dustry and  Commerce,  ed.  Cambridge,  1892. —  Lebon.  France, 
ed.  Putnam's  Sons,  1898. —  Levasseur.  Histoire  des  classes 
ouvriSres  depuis  1789,  ed.  Paris,  1867. —  Levasseur.  L'Ouv- 
rier  Am^ricain,  ed.  Larose,  Paris,  1892. —  Leroy-Beaulieu.  La 
question  ouvri6re  au  XIXe  si6cle,  ed.  Paris,  1872. —  Lowell. 
Governments  and  parties  in  Continental  Europe,  ed.  Hough- 
ton, Mifflin  &  Co.,  1896.—  Veblin.  The  theory  of  the  Leisure 
Classes.  Macmillan,  1899. — Webb.  Industrial  Democracy,  ed. 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1897. 

German  Socialism. —  Bebel.  Die  Frau  und  der  Sozialis- 
mus,  ed.  Diek,  Stuttgart,  1897.  Bohm-Bawerk.  Karl  Marx 
and  the  close  of  his  system.  Eng.  trans.  Macmillan  &  Co., 
N.  Y.,  1898. —  Engels.  Ludwig  Feuerbach  und  der  Ausgang 
der  klassischen  deutsehen  Philosophic,  ed.  Stuttgart,  1895. — 
Engels.  Socialism,  Utopian  and  scientific,  Swan,  Sonnen- 
schein  &  Co.,  1892. —  Kautsky.  Das  Erfurter  Programm,  ed. 
Diek,  Stuttgart,  1892. —  Lassalle.  Reden  und  Schriften^  ed. 
Bernstein,  Berlin,  1893. —  Lavollee.  Les  classes  ouvri^res  en 
Europe,  ch.  vi,  ed.  Guillaumin  &  Cie.,  Paris,  1884. —  Marx. 
Mis^re  de  la  philosophie,  ed.  Giard  et  Bri^re,  Paris,  1896;  Das 
Kapital.  ed.  Meissner,  Hamburg,  1883-1884;  Dix-huit  Bru- 
maire,  ed.  Lille,  1891 ;  Revolution  and  Counter-Revolution, 
Swan,  Sonnenschein  &  Co.,  London,  1896. —  Marx  and  Engels. 
Manifesto  (1847),  ed.  New  York,  1888.  Protokol  tiber  der  ver- 
handlung  des  sozialdemokratischen  Parteitages,  ed.  Vorwarts, 
Berlin,  1896. —  Russell.  German  Social  Democracy,  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.,  London,  1896. 


CHAPTER  VI, 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MODERN  FRENCH 
SOCIALISM. 
19 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

I.  Scientific  Socialism. 
II.  Integral  Socialism. 
III.  Summary  of  the  Principles  of  the  Two  Schools. 


The  so-called  "  Scientific  Socialism  '^  is  a  type  of  so- 
cialistic theory  entirely  contemporary  with  the  second 
half  of  this  century.  Up  to  the  present  time,  socialism 
was  never  a  system,  so  much  as  a  dream  of  one  or  a 
few  persons;  a  voice  or  a  few  voices  raised  against  the 
world  from  time  to  time  in  accents  of  criticism  or  in- 
dignation; voices  which  urged  remedies  often  inconsist- 
ent and  fantastic,  based  on  conceptions  of  men  as  pure 
spirits  and  of  society  entirely  cut  away  from  history  or 
the  soil  on  which  it  stood.  Now,  on  the  contrary,  so- 
cialism lays  claim  to  be  a  social  system  deduced  from 
truths  revealed  by  that  kind  of  search  into  social  con- 
ditions which  science  demands  as  the  guarantee  of  sound 
doctrine.  Socialism  now  claims  to  be  ^^  an  historic  dis- 
covery.^* This  "  Scientific  Socialism,'*  or  "  Marxism," 
might  be  called  an  attempt  to  give  a  materialistic  an- 
swer to  the  perpetually  and  universally  debated  prob- 
lem of  evil.  In  the  eyes  of  the  party  who  makes  its 
principles  their  platform,  the  new  French  socialism  is 
not  a  social  philosophy,  not  a  reform  movement.  "  So- 
cialism is  not  a  system  of  any  reformer  whatever," 
writes  Lafargue;  "  it  is  the  doctrine  of  those  who  believe 
that  the  existing  system  is  on  the  eve  of  fatal  economic 
evolution,  which  will  establish  collective  ownership  of 


292       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

land  in  the  hands  of  organizations  of  workers  instead 
of  the  individual  ownership  of  capital.  Socialism  is  in 
the  character  of  an  historical  discovery."^  Says  an- 
other, "  Socialism  is  the  theoretic  expression  of  the 
present  economic  phase  of  human  evolution/^^ 

This  pretension  at  being  positive  theory,  the  doctrine 
fails  to  carry  out.  It  has  already  been  noted  that  in 
spite  of  its  announced  disdain  for  sentiment  and  its 
claim  to  be  non-partisan,  scientific  theory,  compassion 
and  wrath  at  the  condition  of  the  working  classes,  and 
a  hope  of  clearing  the  way  to  a  fundamental  cure  of 
all  social  misery,  was  at  once  the  impetus  that  shaped 
the  movement  and  the  reason  for  the  enthusiastic  sup- 
port it  still  receives.  Marxism  means  unbounded  faith 
in  pure  democracy;  that  is,  faith  in  the  rule  of  the  ab- 
solute majority  and  the  right  of  the  individual  to  de-. 
velop  by  way  of  liberty;  as  it  is  usually  interpreted,  it 
represents  a  dream  of  an  ultimate  social  harmony  as 
much  as  any  other  socialistic  scheme  for  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  society.^  But  "  Scientific  Socialism ''  is  so  much 
more  scientific  in  its  method,  so  much  less  impassioned 
in  its  style  than  any  preceding  socialism,  and  it  has  be- 
side, an  aim  so  much  more  practical,  that,  even  though 
it  is  an  interpretation  of  history  worked  out  under  the 
undoubted  influence  of  preconceptions,  it  is  yet  rela- 
tively at  least,  nearer  to  being  a  scientific  socialism  than 


1  In  "  Figaro,"  1896,  cf . ;  also,  Jaur&s,  Socialisme  et  Paysan, 
p.  116. 

2  Deville.     Principes  Socialistes,  p.  1,  ed.    1896. 

3  Marx  himself  may  not  be  justly  accused  of  promising  more 
than  the  amelioration  of  the  present  condition  of  the  working 
classes.  However,  no  such  uncertainty  as  to  the  final  solution 
of  the  problem  of  social  discontent  is  to  be  found  in  the  French 
Marxism. 


SCIENTIFIC  SOCIALISM.  293 

any  theory  of  its  kind  that  has  ever  been  put  forward. 
In  comparison  with  any  socialism  antecedent  to  it,  there 
is  some  justification  for  the  great  stress  which  all  its 
adherents  put  upon  the  scientific  character  of  the  pres- 
ent movement;  it  is  when  the  theory  is  taken  by  itself, 
that  the  claim  can  hardly  be  said  to  rest  upon  fact. 

The  doctrines  of  Scientific  Socialism  reduce  to  two 
of  chief  importance,  the  one,  usually  called  the  mate- 
rialistic conception  of  history,  with  its  important  de- 
duction of  class  struggle  as  the  primary  cause  of  social 
progress;  and  the  other,  that  interpretation  of  the  pres- 
ent social  order,  which  holds  it  to  be  essentially  an 
age  of  capitalistic  production  with  its  inevitable  ac- 
companiment, surplus  labor  or  surplus  value.  The 
arguments  that  support  these  two  theories  make  clear 
all  that  is  essential  to  a  fair  understanding  of  the  doc- 
trine. 

In  relation  to  the  materialistic  conception  of  his- 
tory, it  must  be  noted,  first  of  all,  that  with  their  Gallic 
love  of  logic  and  completeness,  the  French  have  made 
the  doctrine  of  Marx  more  assailable.  It  is  no  longer 
as  in  Marx*  only  the  progress  of  society,  which  sums 
up  in  a  series  of  class  struggles,  each  conditioned  by  the 
economic  background.  In  the  Scientific  Socialism  the 
theory  is,  logically  enough,  transferred  to  the  subjective 
life  and  man's  development,  as  well  as  society's,  is  de- 

4  Labriola.  Essai  sur  la  Conception  Mat^rialiste  de  Phis- 
toire,  Paris,  1897,  seems  to  be  held  by  French  socialists  to 
be  the  most  complete  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  process. 
This  author  only  pretends  to  be  a  popular  version  of  Marx, 
but  the  additions  noted  in  the  text  are  in  his  essays.  The  same 
theory  can  be  found  in  briefer  form,  in  the  pamphlets  of 
Deville,  Guesde  and  Lafargue, 


294       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM, 

pendent  upon  the  material  conditions  which  he  finds 
about  him.  Thus,  the  fundamental  postulate  of 
Scientific  Socialism  holds  that  all  matter  and  mind  de- 
velop by  a  necessary  evolutionary  process  where  the 
principle  of  conflict  is  the  cause  of  the  successive  phases 
of  growth.  Using  this  postulate  and  applying  it  to  his- 
tory, Marxism  discerns  that  man  is  the  direct  agent  to 
the  development  of  society,  but  man  is  dependent  ^r 
his  development  upon  matter;  therefore,  society  and 
man  alike  are  finally  forced  to  wait  on  the  development 
of  material  conditions  before  either  can  progress.  Proof 
of  the  three  propositions  into  which  this  statement  can 
be  divided,  runs  somewhat  as  follows. 

First  to  prove  that  man  is  dependent  upon  matter  for 
his  development,  it  is  argued  that  Nature,  "  one,  free 
and  sovereign,"  is  at  once  "matter  and  spirit;"*^  she 
is  the  necessity  that  is  behind  all  that  is  material,  and 
there  is  nothing  but  that  which  is  material.  Thus  man 
is  said  to  be  primarily  a  non-intellectual  being,  and 
his  intelligence  depends  for  its  growth  upon  his  sur- 
roundings, since  no  man  can  develop  psychologically 
until  his  surroundings  can  satisfy  his  animal  needs. 
"The  mind  has  the  power  to  elaborate  the  elements 
drawn  from  the  environment  just  as  the  digestive  ap- 
paratus has  the  faculty  of  digesting;  ''^  but  unless  man 
is  free  to  get  at  these  elements,  his  mind  can  Ho  more 
thrive  than  his  stomach  can  get  along  without  food. 
The  individual  moves  from  the  animal  to  the  intel- 
lectual condition  only  so  fast  as  his  environment  frees 

5  Comp.     Le   second   commandement  de   la  Nature  dirine; 
also,  Lafargue,  in  "  Id^alisme  et  Mat^rialisme." 
«Deville,  op.  cit.,  p.  167. 


MATERIALISTIC   CONCEPTION  OF  HISTORY.      295 

him  from  the  physiological  necessity  of  a  fierce  struggle 
for  existence.  "  The  substratum  of  will  and  action  is 
the  co-ordination  and  subordination  of  needs."^  When 
the  imperative  necessity  that  forces  a  man  to  devote 
all  of  life  to  supplying  his  physical  wants  is  removed, 
then  and  then  only,  it  is  argued,  can  his  true  cerebral 
development  begin.^  The  character  and  development 
of  the  individual  are  held  to  be  finally  conditioned  by 
his  relation  to  the  forces  of  Nature  about  him. 

Second,  to  show  that  social  development  is  condi- 
tioned by  man's  development,  it  is  posited  that  society 
only  begins  in  the  necessity  for  man  to  satisfy  his  im- 
perative physical  needs,  and  that  society  only  progresses 
to  a  state  properly  so-called  as  these  needs  are  increas- 
ingly ministered  to.  The  cause  of  society  is  the  "  cere- 
bral activity  exercising  itself  upon  the  materials  fur- 
nished by  the  external  surroundings  and  developing  it- 
self in  proportion  as  it  exercises  itself,  and  the  materials 
at  its  disposition  are  more  numerous  and  more  com- 
plex."^ Thus  it  is  held  to  be  fairly  proved,  and  it  is 
proved,  if  the  first  proposition  be  granted,  that  the  be- 
ginnings of  society  depend  upon  the  development  of 
man. 

Finally,  to  prove  that  all  social  progress  is,  in  the  last 
instance,  unalterably  dependent  upon  the  economic  en- 
vironment, it  needs  only  to  recall  that  it  is  held  to  be 
proven  that  man's  development  is  conditioned  by  his 
economic  environment,  and  that  social  development  de- 
pends upon  man's  development;  thus  it  necessarily  fol- 

TLabriola,  op.  cit.,  p.  121,  ed.  1897. 
SDeville,  op.  cit.,  p.  166. 
9  Ibid,  pp.  166,  167. 


296       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

lows  that  social  development  depends  upon  the  eco- 
nomic environment.  It  is  a  watchword  of  Scientific 
Socialism  that  ^^  the  inventions  and  not  the  intentions 
of  men  have  been  the  cause  of  progress/'^^  Social 
growth  is  made  out  to  be  a  necessary  evolutionary  pro- 
cess in  which  the  changes  are  wrought  out  and  deter- 
mined primarily  by  changes  in  the  economic  categories. 

This  necessary  historical  movement  is  said  to  express 
itself  in  a  succession  of  class  struggles  which  work  out 
on  the  basis  of  various  kinds  of  property-holding;  each 
property  form  is,  at  any  given  period,  the  final  determi- 
nant of  a  characteristic  economic  order.  It  is  not  so- 
cialists alone  who  have  thought  to  solve  social  prob- 
lems by  an  unnecessary  and  undesirable  isolation  of  the 
economic  phenomena  and  have  treated  man  as  though 
he  were  always  and  only  a  creature  of  economic  im- 
pulses. It  is,  however,  only  the  socialists,  and  they  are 
never  tired  of  saying  so,  who  have  looked  upon  all  his- 
tory as  summed  up  in  the  progress  of  this  class  of 
phenomena.  The  argument  by  which  French  socialists 
undertake  to  prove  this  doubtful  theory  is  only  that  of 
Marx,  and  is  too  well-known  to  need  more  than  a  brief 
statement. 

Accepting  the  formula  of  evolutionary  science  which 
derives  all  forward  movement  from  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence and  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  Scientific  So- 
cialism holds  that  society  also  is  subject  to  such  a  blind 
evolutionary  process, and  claims  that  in  society  the  neces- 
sary conflict  is  not  an  individual,  but  a  class  struggle. 
A  conflict  in  one  social  order,  it  is  said,  produces  the 
movement  that,  by  developing  another,  goes  to  make 

lODeville,  op.  cit.,  p.  169. 


MATERIALISTIC   CONCEPTION  OF  HISTORY.      297 

history;  "the  history  of  man  is  the  history  of  class 
struggle,  generated  by  economic  conditions/'^^  All  hu- 
man history  is  discerned  to  be  a  movement  in  which 
each  phase  presents,  as  a  dual  aspect,  a  tendency  to  decay 
and  a  tendency  to  develop.  These  two  tendencies  are 
always  expressed  in  social  life  by  two  sharply-defined 
classes  which  constantly  clash  one  with  the  other,  to 
the  final  extermination  of  the  one  and  the  ultimate  su- 
premacy of  the  other  as  a  causal  factor  in  a  new  social 
arrangement. 

In  the  theory  under  discussion,  as  has  been  noted,  the 
struggle  of  classes  is  not  thought  of  as  a  primary  cause ; 
it  is  itself  looked  upon  as  an  effect  of  given  economic 
conditions,  chief  among  which  is  the  property  form  re- 
quired by  the  economic  order.  The  Scientific  Socialist 
undertakes  to  sketch  out  a  history  of  property  which 
makes  communal  property  coincident  with  tribal  life, 
individual  property  the  expression  of  the  manner  of 
satisfying  wants  in  the  feudal  times,  and  what  is  called 
"  corporative  property,^'  the  type  of  land-holding  which 
belongs  to  the  present  era.^^  These  property  forms  are 
held  to  come  about,  not  as  a  result  of  any  particular 

11  Deville,  p.  172.  Comp.  Marx.  Misdre  de  la  Philosophic, 
p.  114;  Manifesto,  p.  7. 

12  It  is  to  be  noted  that  this  conception  of  history  includes 
all  the  ideas  of  Saint  Simon,  with  regard  to  the  relativity  ol 
historical  periods  and  their  germinal  relation,  one  to  the 
other;  repeats  the  Saint  Simonian  doctrine  of  the  relativity 
of  social  conditions  to  certain  basic  institutions  of  the  society, 
but  differs  to  the  advantage  of  Saint  Simon,  at  the  very  foun- 
dation, in  the  idea  concerning  the  source  of  development.  For 
Saint  Simon,  the  "  law  of  progress,"  acting  upon  men,  and 
not  upon  economic  or  any  other  material  conditions,  is  at  the 
bottom  of  the  sequence  of  events  that  make  history,  and  it  is 
the  thought  stages,  not  economic  phases,  which  are  the  real 
tests  of  change. 


298       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

ruling  theory  in  regard  to  the  property  right,  but  be- 
cause of  the  mere  necessities  that  arise  from  the  suc- 
cessive methods  of  satisfying  wants.^^  The  French  ex- 
ponents of  the  Marxian  theory  are  not  altogether  free 
from  the  old  tendencies  to  show  how  the  individualistic 
form  of  property-holding  is  at  the  root  of  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  worst  passions  of  human  nature;^*  the  most 
approved  custom  is,  however,  to  treat  the  subject  as 
Mark  himself  did.^^  Thus  it  is  not  the  habit  to  call  in- 
dividualistic or  corporative  property,  as  the  early  so- 
cialist writers  did,  or  as  the  Integral  Socialists  still  do, 
a  deplorable  mistake,  to  be  consciously  rectified  when 
men  shall  come  to  understand  the  true  answer  to  the 
difficult  problem  involved  in  the  word  justice.  Scientific 
Socialism  fully  recognizes  that  individual  property 
rights  are  legal  rights.  The  school  teaches,  however, 
that  a  given  form  of  property  right,^®  as  well  as  the 
state  that  creates  the  right,  derives  from  an  historical 
process,  in  which  the  manner  of  appropriating  material 
things  is  the  final  determinant  of  all  the  rest,  and  holds 
that  no  one  form  is  always  best  and  most  efficient. 

The  character  of  the  relation  of  the  laborer  to  the  em- 
ployer is  likewise  shown  to  represent  a  series  of  histori- 
cal phases  where  the  laborer  has  always  given  a  great 
and  scarcely  diminishing  share  of  his  labor  in  quota 
return  for  a  diminishing  share  of  subsistence.  This 
quantity  of  labor  which  the  workman  gives,  Scientific 

13  Comp.  Deville,  op.  cit.,  pp.  160-165. 

14  Ibid,  p.  166. 

15  Marx's  idea  is  best  expressed  in  "  MisSre  de  la  PMloBO* 
phie,"  pp.  214  et  seq.,  ed.  Paris,  1896. 

iSDeville,  op.  cit.,  p.  163;  also,  pp.  181-183. 


MATERIALISTIC  CONCEPTION  OF  HISTORY.     299 

Socialism  calls  "  Surplus  labor/^  and  the  theory  seeks 
to  show  that  "  Surplus  labor  "  is  a  permanent  fact  in 
the  relation  between  employed  and  employer.  It  is 
energetietilly  insisted  that  this  ^'  surplus  labor  "  is,  like 
all  other  economic  conditions,  an  historical  category; 
it  "  was  not  invented  by  the  capitalist  ^^  nor  by  the  so- 
cialist.^''' It  is  asserted  that  in  the  ancient  times,  a 
certain  portion  of  work  was  given  in  return  for  food, 
clothing  and  housing,  so  that  at  that  time,  too,  there 
was  really  a  subsistence  wage.  Under  serfage,  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  two  kinds  of  labor  is  said  to  be 
clear;  but  in  modern  industry,  the  form  effaces  all  trace 
of  demarcation  between  paid  and  unpaid  labor.  The 
change  that  takes  place  during  the  progress  of  society 
is  not  the  disappearance  of  the  fact  itself.  The  differ- 
ence lies  in  this,  that  in  each  successive  era,  surplus 
labor  grows  increasingly  hard  to  discern. 

The  materialistic  conception  of  history  sums  up  then 
as  a  doctrine  which  sees  in  social  growth  a  necessary 
development  of  society,  a  development  conditioned  by 
changes  in  the  economic  environment  and  carried  for- 
ward by  means  of  a  series  of  class  struggles. 

Eegarded  as  a  sociological  theory,  the  Marxian  doc- 
trine is  certainly  at  fault.  Since  the  school  purports 
to  be  a  social  science,  not  a  social  philosophy,  it  has 
erred  first  of  all  in  method;  for,  when  it  sets  up  the  doc- 
trine of  necessity,  it  has  aimed  to  answer  problems  be- 
hind social  laws  of  causation,  problems  behind  all  ma- 
terial phenomena,  inorganic,  organic  or  social.  It  has 
thus  set  up  a  social  philosophy,  not  a  social  science. 
Unless  upon  the  authority  of  faith,  a  perfectly  justifi- 

iTDeville,  op,  cit.,  pp.  121-123. 


300       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

able,  but  not  scientific  ground,  it  can  certainly  not  be 
asserted  with  authority  that  the  laws  of  nature  and 
society  must  of  necessity  follow  the  course  they  now 
seem  to  take.  The  scientist  can  state  with*certainty 
that  the  laws  pertaining  to  terrestrial  conditions  act 
and  react  as  he  has  observed  them  to  do,  but  he  knows 
nothing  to  prove  that  they  must  act  in  that  way.  To 
posit  necessity  as  the  undoubted  power  which  controls 
all  things  here  below  is  to  start  from  a  preconception 
quite  as  unscientific  as  that  of  a  divine  plan.  It  is  to 
leave  the  scientific  altogether.  Thus  in  supporting  the 
doctrine  of  necessity,  Marxism  loses  the  right  to  claim 
for  itself  the  position  of  a  scientific  socialism. 

The  other  proposition,  that  economic  institutions  de- 
termine the  character  of  all  other  social  institutions, 
undoubtedly  involves  an  interesting  point  of  view  to 
which  many  facts  of  history  seem  to  bear  witness. 
There  are,  however,  a  number  of  marked  social  changes 
in  which  no  economic  question  can  be  said  to  have 
played  a  motive  part.^^  Alterations  in  the  habit  of 
thought  of  a  social  group  seem  a  necessary  antecedent 
to  changes  in  all  social  phenomena,  and  the  cause  of 
such  changes  of  thought  cannot,  even  in  primary  phases 
of  existence,  fairly  be  regarded  as  solely  economic.  If 
man  were  not  a  social  animal,  a  political  animal  and  a 
speaking  animal,  as  well  as  a  tool-making  animal,  the 
economic  impulse  might  be  regarded  as  the  single  and 
primary  cause  of  social  progress.  But  even  the  tool- 
is  The  Civil  War  in  the  U.  S.  may  be  noted  as  one  example ; 
feudalism  fell  before  the  idea  of  equality  rather  than  because 
of  economic  causes;  the  determining  power  of  the  Catholic 
church  waned  when  it  became  an  economic  rather  than  an 
ethical  influence.  It  was  only  in  the  latter  role  that  it  acted 
as  a  factor  for  progress. 


MATERIALISTIC  COI^CEPTION  OP  HISTORY.     3OI 

making  process  is  the  result  of  changes  in  habits 
of  thought.  Social  changes  have  undoubtedly  been 
brought  about  by  economic  changes,  but  sympathy,  in- 
vention, intelligence,  imitative  faculties  and  power  of 
reasoning  are  the  primary  instincts  which,  acting  in 
the  primitive  man,  drive  him  to  association,  enlarge  the 
horizon  of  his  desires  and  wants,  and  finally  develop 
economic  changes  and  economic  society.  Even  without 
undertaking  to  refute  absolutely  the  doctrine  of  prog- 
ress by  way  of  economic  changes,  it  seems  perfectly 
justifiable  to  insist  that,  in  isolating  the  economic  cate- 
gories and  making  them  the  unique  basis  of  movement 
in  history,  Marxism  has  been  betrayed  into  one  of  those 
generalizations  so  tempting  to  the  thinker,  but  so  rarely 
justified  by  the  facts  of  reality.  The  generalization  in 
question  is  at  best  not  proved.  .  Viewed  in  the  light  of 
any  dispassionate  survey  of  history,  it  seems  to  give  an 
unwarranted  predominance  to  one  among  the  compli- 
cated factors  of  social  progress,  while  at  the  same  time 
it  neglects  unwarrantably  the  determinative  part  taken 
by  the  instincts  of  men  in  any  and  every  phase  of  so- 
cial growth. 

The  philosophy  of  history  which  has  just  been  given 
was  really  worked  out  to  answer  a  question  in  the  minds 
of  men  who  rebelled  against  the  social  order  they  saw 
about  them.  This  theory,  which  makes  all  historical 
movement  depend  upon  a  single  current  and  limits  its 
source  to  the  appetites  of  men,  is  really  a  philosophy 
in  the  interests  of  the  "  most  numerous  and  most  op- 
pressed class "  exactly  as  were  the  philosophies  dis- 
cussed in  a  previous  chapter.    And  this  is  only  natural. 


302       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM, 

for,  though  they  are  not  ready  to  admit  it,  though  they 
try  to  exclude  justice  and  replace  it  by  necessity,  Marx- 
ists, like  all  other  reformers,  saw  first  of  all  a  social  ar- 
rangement that  went  against  their  sense  of  justice,  and 
their  first  effort  was  to  find  an  explanation  for  the  pres- 
ent which  would  demonstrate  this  inequitable  relation 
between  man  and  man,  and  between  man  and  those  ma- 
terial things  on  which  their  theory  based  his  well-being. 
The  conception  of  history  which  has  just  been  given 
was  worked  out  to  aid  in  answering  this  problem. 

But  oddly  enough,  and,  of  course,  without  intention, 
the  logical  teaching  of  the  materialistic  conception  of 
history  as  applied  to  action  is  something  dangerously 
near  to  Quietism.  When  all  social  relations  are  shown 
to  be  the  result  of  the  unconscious  action  of  '^imper- 
sonal active  forces  '^  and  man  is  regarded  as  the  almost 
impassive  recipient  of  the  play  of  these  forces, ^^  the  na- 
tural impulse  of  one  who  adopted  the  theory  would  be 
to  let  the  necessary  course  of  things  work  itself  out ;  the 
part  of  the  individual  would  be  to  watch  the  struggle 
with  hope  and  await  the  moment  when  he  was  caught 
by  the  forward  movement.  In  reality,  however,  Marx 
and  his  followers  are  far  from  believing  in  any  such 
inaction;  the  writers  of  that  burning  Manifesto  aimed 
at  rousing  and  stimulating  active  effort.  Neither  is 
there  quietism  in  French  Marxism,  but  rather  some- 
thing more  nearly  resembling  a  revolutionary  spirit. 

19  See  e.  g.  Marx.  Le  dix-huit  Brumaire  de  Louis  Bona- 
parte, ed.  Lille,  1891,  p.  11.  "  Les  hommes  font  leur  propre 
histoire,  mais  ils  ne  la  font  pas  d'apr§s  leur  arbitre  dans  des 
circonstances  ehoisis  par  eux,"  etc.  Comp.  Deville,  op.  cit., 
p.  168. 


SURPLUS  VALUE.  303 

Consciously  or  unconsciously,  the  Marxian  reformer 
is  most  of  all  bent  on  showing  the  oppressed  part  of 
society  the  direction  of  the  social  current  so  that  those 
interested  may  not  offer  an  unintentional  opposition 
which  shall  delay  the  desired  progress  of  events.  It  is 
in  this  end  that  scientific  socialists  have  so  carefully 
analyzed  present  social  conditions.  The  laborer  is 
"scientifically^^  shown  his  wrongs;  is,  also  "  scientifi- 
cally," shown  how  these  very  wrongs  are  bringing  hun 
a  better  future  and  finally  it  is  demonstrated  to  him 
how  he  can  help  to  prepare  for  that  future.  The 
teaching  of  all  Marxian  doctrine,  especially  when  di- 
rected to  interpreting  our  own  time,  seeks  always  to 
add  to  the  unrest  of  the  laborer  and  to  give  him  a  hope 
which  shall  change  that  unrest  to  active  and  organized 
agitation.  While  the  fatality  that  is  pushing  toward  the 
next  social  stage  is  always  recognized,  it  is  none  the  less 
carefully  pointed  out  to  the  workman,  that  by  making 
himself  the  conscious  ally  of  this  fatality,  he  can  aid 
and  even  hasten  the  transition.^^ 

The  analysis  of  the  present  society  as  given  in  the 
French  teaching  of  Marxism,  scarcely  shows  even  such 
slight  variation  from  the  original  theory  as  was  to  be 
found  in  that  part  of  the  theory  just  given.  The  state- 
ment of  present  conditions,  as  the  French  Marxists  give 
it,  is  only  a  repetition  of  the  now  well-known  fallacies 
of  Marx  and  Engels.     In  the  French  statement,  more 

20  AH  the  French  arguments  in  this  connection  seem  based 
on  the  argument  as  Engels  gives  it  in  "  Ludwig  Feuerbach 
und  der  Ausgang  der  Klassischen  deutschen  Philosophic." 
Comp.  e.  g.  Deville,  op.  eit.,  p.  168,  and  Lafargue  in  "  IdSalisme 
et  Mat4rialisme,"  ed.  1895,  Paris. 


304       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

of  bitterness  and  less  of  statistic  marks  the  difference 
between  the  temperament  of  the  master  and  that  of  his 
disciples.  In  the  political  speeches  of  the  public,  as 
one  catches  them  in  pamphlet  or  newspaper,  whether 
they  are  addresses  in  the  chamber  or  "  conferences ''  at 
the  sections,  dispassionate  exposition  often  disappears  in 
vituperative  attack  upon  current  institutions;  most  of- 
ten it  is  expressed  in  anti-clericalism,  anti-functionar- 
ism  and  the  like.  However,  the  few  books  that  at- 
tempt  a  complete  statement  of  the  doctrine,  if  quite 
unoriginal  in  principle  and  as  entirely  vitiated  by  false 
reasoning  as  is  the  German  theory,  at  least  offer  their 
critical  study  of  the  present  in  a  spirit  that  is  compara- 
tively unemotional. 

Since,  in  the  Marxist  conception,  history  shows  that 
all  progress  is  by  way  of  fundamental  economic  changes, 
it  is,  of  course,  only  in  its  economic  aspect  that  the 
present  era  is  considered.^^  All  other  institutions  are 
looked  upon  as  so  many  accessories  to  this  fundamental 
social  activity.  The  present  society,  as  all  society,  is 
discerned  to  derive  from  the  economic  activity  of  man 
and  the  present  social  development,  like  all  social 
growth  which  history  can  show,  has  had  as  final  cause, 
the  gradual  change  of  economic  conditions.  Political 
changes,  changes  in  manner  and  religion,  are  said  to  be 
now  as  always,  only  so  many  results  of  the  alteration 
in  industrial  operations.  Following  this  line  of  argu- 
ment, Marxists  name  the  present,  the  era  of  Capitalis- 
tic Production,  and,  looking  for  the  characteristic  dis- 
harmony which  their  theory  attaches  to  each  economic 

2iDeville,  op.  cit.,  pp.  24,  25;  also,  p.  216. 


SURPLUS   VALUE.  305 

period,  they  find  that  it  centers  at  present  about  "  cor- 
porative "  or  productive  property.  Because  a  minor 
part  of  the  community,  the  Capitalists,  stand  possessed 
of  the  "  social  capital,"  that  is,  the  source  and  means 
of  production,  the  other  economic  class,  the  proletariat, 
cannot,  they  say,  except  on  most  unsatisfactory  terms, 
gain  access  to  such  capital.  The  capitalist  thus  gets 
an  advantage,  and  he  gets  it  because  the  progress  of  me- 
chanical science  has  made  the  industrial  appliances  of 
the  present  day  both  too  costly  and  too  cumbrous  to  be 
owned  or  used  individually.  Thus  social  development 
has  brought  it  about  that  a  few  individuals  who  con- 
trol the  productive  wealth  of  the  community,  have  the 
proletaire,  the  man  who  brings  only  his  hands  and  his 
brains  to  market,  at  a  complete  disadvantage.  Pos- 
sessed of  a  labor-force  which  distinguishes  itself  from 
its  function,  labor,  "  as  the  power  of  walking  distin- 
guishes itself  from  its  function,  walking,"  the  laborer 
is  forced,  if  he  would  not  starve,  to  accept  the  hard 
bargain  which  capital  drives.  The  utter  impotence  of 
the  proletaire  to  get  at  productive  wealth  enables  the 
capitalist  to  buy  labor-power  in  the  open  market  at  a 
price  often  below,  and  rarely  above,  the  actual  cost  of 
maintaining  labor-force,  and  to  secure  in  return  the 
full  time  of  the  laborer. 

Now,  the.  situation,  it  is  held,  might  not  bring  about 
a  social  conflict,  if  it  were  not  true,  that  this  labor  which 
the  privileged  few,  by  reason  of  the  facts  already  de- 
scribed, have  been  able  to  get  from  the  proletarian,  is, 
after  all,  that  element  of  production  which  makes  all 
commodities  marketable.  There  might  not  be  this 
misery  if  the  capitalist  were  not  able  to  force  the  prole- 
20 


306       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

taire's  labor  from  him  at  a  mere  subsistence  price  and 
then  appropriate  to  himself  all  but  a  tiny  portion  of 
the  value  that  labor  creates.^^  French  Marxism  spends 
no  time  in  elaboration  of  this  labor-value  theory;  it 
rather  asserts  than  argues  it,  with  a  faith  in  it,  which 
is  possibly  all  the  greater  because  the  terms  of  the  ar- 
gument are  not  expanded.^  That  labor  is  value  is 
held  to  be  the  fundamental  reason  why  the  proletaire 
has  an  undoubted  claim  to  a  share  in  the  profits  of 
which     an    ill-ordered    society    now    deprives    him.^* 

22Comp.  Deville,  p.  104  et  seq.,  op.  cit. 

23  Marx,  it  will  be  remembered,  asserted  that  all  commodities 
are  primarily  manufactured  to  satisfy  a  need;  but  in  this  con- 
nection, as  use-valueSj  he  contends  that  commodities  are  non- 
social  facts.  He  holds  it  to  follow  that  utility  has  nothing 
to  do  with  true  value,  which  is  value  in  exchange.  Exchange 
only  arises  with  the  idea  of  equating  non-use  values  to  each 
other.  (Das  Kapital,  p.  76.)  And  it  is  as  quantitative,  not 
as  qualitative,  objects  that  goods  are  said  to  be  put  upon  the 
exchange  market.  Now  their  value  in  that  market  is  deter- 
mined by  the  labor  they  have  involved ;  for,  since  a  commodity 
represents  a  utility,  plus  labor,  and  since  utility  plays  no 
part  in  exchanges,  it  must  be  the  only  remaining  attribute, 
that  is,  labor,  that  gives  exchange  value  to  it.  The  value  of 
a  commodity  then  is  the  "  Objective  form  of  the  social  labor 
expended  in  its  production  "  ( Kapital,  p.  545 ) ,  and  the  meas- 
ure of  that  value  is  the  labor  time  socially  necessary  for  its 
production. 

24  The  question  of  what  is  value,  is  a  rock  on  which  political 
economists  will  split  so  long  as  value,  or  any  other  of  the 
principles  of  economic  theory,  is  held  to  be  a  purely  logical 
category,  capable  of  being  isolated  from  other  social  institu- 
tions, and  logically  and  for  all  time  determined.  Value  can 
certainly  not  be  regarded  as  a  constant.  In  order  to  any 
successful  analysis  of  it,  value  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  vari- 
able, into  which  changing  factors  enter  as  the  conditions  of 
society  alter.  It  is  then  easy  to  assert  the  falsity  of  the 
Marxian  formula,  which  errs  first  of  all  in  making  labor 
metaphysically  and  eternally  the  source  of  value  and  is  beside 
^yen  under  anv  given  economic  order,  a  formula  worked  out 


Concentration  of  capital,  30Y 

Scientific  Socialism  finds,  by  this  sort  of  analysis  of 
value,  a  clue  to  the  deprivation  of  the  proletariat;  it 
regards  rent,  profit,  interest  and  wages  darkly,  as  so 
many  delusive  names  for  that  surplus  labor  which  is 
surplus  value,  retained  because  the  capitalist  makes  an 
outrageous  use  of  his  opportunities.  The  proletarian 
is  thus  shown  that  he  has  good  cause  for  a  fierce  class- 
struggle;  by  the  surplus  value  theory,  it  is  made  evi- 
dent to  him  that  he  is  caught  at  a  disadvantage  and 
then  robbed  of  all  but  a  bare  subsistence.  But  the  law 
of  Concentration  of  Capital  is  given  to  him  as  the  rock 
of  his  salvation. 

In  the  French  statement  of  Marxism,  there  is  only 
a  somewhat  nebulous  assertion  of  this  theory  of  the 
concentration  of  capital,  a  theory  that  formed  a  pivotal 
part  of  Marx's  doctrine.  The  principle  is,  however, 
used  as  the  basis  by  which  to  demonstrate,  with  plenty 
of  elaboration,  that  the  capitalistic  era  is  developing 
the  essential  elements  of  its  own  overthrow.  In  spite 
of,  in  fact  because  of,  the  seeming  triumph  of  the  sys- 
tem, the  capitalistic  order  is  said  to  be  in  an  advanced 

by  the  arbitrary  and  utterly  unjustifiable  omission  of  the 
part  utility  plays  in  any  exchange.  It  is  not  so  easy  to  set 
down  finally  and  for  all  time  what  value  is.  Under  present 
economic  conditions,  it  can,  however,  be  readily  proven  that 
labor  is  ordinarily  only  a  lesser  element  of  value,  and  desira- 
bility and  scarcity  usually  play  a  larger  part  than  labor  in 
determining  the  market  value  of  a  commodity.  If  labor  is 
not  value,  then  the  surplus  value  theory  is  likewise  discred- 
ited, for  it  rests  partly  on  this  formula  of  labor  as  value,  and 
partly  on  an  equally  fallacious  doctrine,  the  "  iron  law  of 
wages."  It  has  been  again  and  again  proven  that  only  under 
special  conditions  is  labor  forced  to  remain  at  a  bare  sub- 
sistence wage ;  the  "  iron  law  of  wages  "  is,  at  most,  a  par- 
ticular, never  a  universal,  law. 


308       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

stage  of  its  existence.  Capital  is  represented  as  the 
"  character  which  the  means  of  production  have  as- 
sumed under  determined  social  conditions  which  these 
can  lose  without  being  the  least  in  the  world  harmed 
by  their  existence/^^^  and  capital  itself  is  said  to  be  gen- 
erating the  elements  which  will  annihilate  it.  It  is 
held  demonstrated  that  economic  conditions  are  to-day 
developing  the  forces  which  shall  annihilate  individual 
property  just  as  economic  processes  in  the  past  created 
that  form  of  property.  The  theory  would  show  that 
Capitalistic  production  progresses  by  way  of  the  law  of 
concentration  of  capital,  sometimes  called  the  law  of  so- 
cialization of  capital,  and  that  by  the  immutable  work- 
ing of  this  law,  the  capitalists  grow  fewer  and  the  ranks 
of  the  proletariat  larger.  The  increase  of  corporations 
and  trusts  is  taken  to  be  evidence  that  the  proprietary 
class  is  disappearing.  What  is  nominally  private  prop- 
erty has  already  passed  chiefly  into  the  hands  of  share- 
holders; the  capitalistic  class,  properly  so-called,  be- 
comes always  less  numerous,  more  disintegrated  and 
more  superfluous.  On  the  other  hand,  the  number  of 
proletarians  is  said  to  be  increasing  and  to  be  develop- 
ing a  tendency  to  concentrated  and  fraternal  action  as 
a  result  of  that  necessary  co-operation  which  identity 
of  interests  creates.  It  is  pointed  out  that  division  of 
labor,  adding  to  the  skill  of  the  few,  really  creates  an 
identity  of  misery  for  the  many,  and  in  both  cases 
heightens  the  class  feeling.     Collectively,  the  class  be- 

25  Deville,  p.  177.  The  full  statement  of  this  doctrine  can 
be  found  in  any  of  the  books  of  the  party.  See  e.  g.  Deville, 
op.  cit.,  pp.  28-31;  Programme  du  parti  ouvrier,  pp.  14-16; 
Guesde,  Probldme  et  Solution,  p.  11  et  seq. 


CONCENTRATION  OF  CAPITAL,  399 

comes  more  and  more  conscious  of  its  power  and  posi- 
tion. Capitalists,  it  is  said,  are  inclined  to  retire  to 
mere  enjoyment  of  their  gains;  the  direction  of  enter- 
prises is  thus  left  to  the  workers.  An  intellectual  elite 
is  so  developed  whose  strength,  yearly  increasing,  will 
mean  the  final  overthrow  of  the  capitalist.^^  The  law 
of  concentration  of  capital,  diminishing  the  proprietary 
class  in  numbers  and  oppressing  it  with  the  weight  of 
its  enormous  gains,  will  finally  force  the  proprietor  to 
yield  up  the  means  of  production  which  he  now  holds 
to  the  undoing  of  the  laborer.^'^. 

Thus  Marxism  asserts  that  the  present  society  repre- 
sents an  advanced  stage  in  the  struggle  of  classes.  It 
is  held  to  be  easily  discernible  that  class  differences  are 
everywhere  narrowing  to  the  class  antagonism  of  two 
strongly  opposed  economic  factions.  A  terrible,  though 
partially  hidden  contest  Js  said  to  be  going  on  between 
the  ruling  and  the  ruled  in  the  economic  order,  and 
government,  in  the  Marxian  interpretation  of  the  term, 

26  As  to  the  basis  in  fact  of  this  idea  of  the  necessary  so- 
cialization of  all  capital,  it  has  been  noted  already  (see  supra, 
p.  285)  that  French  Marxists  have  themselves  admitted  it  is 
not  an  universal  fact.  Even  while  its  dogma  continues  to  as- 
sert the  unqualified  Marxian  law,  the  school  has  recognized  in 
its  political  tactics  that  agriculture  is  not  likely  to  be  sub- 
ject to  this  law.  They  have  been  forced  to  see  that  which 
Marx  did  not  see,  that  while  the  history  of  the  century  has 
indisputably  shown  a  steadily-increasing  concentration  of  cap- 
ital in  all  mechanical  industry^  wherever  agriculture  is  car- 
ried on  in  highly  organized  centers,  the  work  of  production 
has  as  yet  shown  little  tendency  to  socialize.  Nowhere  better 
than  in  France  is  it  demonstrable  that  intensity  of  cultivation 
demands  a  limitation  in  the  extension  of  a  cultivation,  such 
that  the  possibility  or  advisability  of  agriculture  on  a  large 
scale  diminishes,  rather  than  increases. 

27  See  Guesde.  Catechisme  Socialiste,  pp.  72-79 ;  also  Lecot, 
Andr4,  "  Qu'est-ce  que  Dieu?" 


310       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

is  at  present  only  an  accessory  to  the  continued  domi- 
nation of  the  controlling  minority.  The  salvation  of 
the  oppressed  majority  is  at  hand  if  they  will  only  com- 
prehend and  aid,  not  oppose,  the  march  of  progress. 
If  the  consciousness  of  their  wrongs  penetrates  as  it 
should,  the  whole  of  the  oppressed  class,  a  moment  is 
triumphantly  prophesied  when,  unable  to  cope  with  the 
organized  force  of  the  majority,  the  minority  will  have 
to  give  way  and  the  new  synthesis  will  appear. 

As  to  the  other  social  interests,  devotional,  sexual,  es- 
thetic, the  prevailing  conceptions  concerning  each  of 
these  are  usually  sneered  at;  they  are  held  to  be  only 
so  many  false  notions  resting  on  a  primary  misconcep- 
tion; when  that  unstable  foundation  is  removed  the 
wrong  prejudices  regarding  these  other  social  institu- 
tions are  also  expected  to  disappear.  Eeligion  as  it 
is  now  understood,  is  shown  io  be  only  an  aid  to  the 
domination  of  the  militant  state ;  the  family  and  present 
ideas  of  sex  relations  only  so  many  concomitants  of  the 
present  property  laws.^^  The  social  principle  bred  by 
the  present  order,  stigmatized  as  essentially  a  hideous 
spirit  of  distrust,  the  painful  imperviousness  to  the 
beauties  of  Nature  and  the  generally  false  standards  of 
art  that  accompany  this  leading  principle  —  these,  it  is 
affirmed,  are  all  derived  from  the  system  which  rests 
upon  down-trodden  routine  lives  for  the  mass  of 
humanity. 

Finally,  the  present  political  form  of  society  is  held 
to  be  as  ephemeral  as  are  the  other  aspects.  French 
^Marxists  deny  the  name  of  state  to  society  politically 

28  Guesde.  "  Le  Collectivisme  au  College  de  France,"  p.  47 
et  seq. 


THEORY  OF  STATE.  311 

organized.  They  rest  their  doctrine  that  state  is  noth- 
ing but  the  government,  the  deputed  power,  on  bare  as- 
sertion, but  firmly  hold  to  it.^^  The  state  is  therefore 
defined  as  "  the  public  power  for  coercion,  which  divis- 
ion of  classes  creates  and  maintains,  and  which,  dispos- 
ing of  the  force,  makes  the  laws  and  levies  the  taxes."^^ 
Further,  there  is  a  general  tendency  to  insist  that  even 
this  sort  of  state  will  eventually  disappear  entirely. 
There  may  be  those  who  are  ready  to  recognize  the  in- 
evitable continuity  of  some  kind  of  organized  power^^ 
properly  to  be  called  the  state,  but  the  general  position 
is  that  cited,  a  position  possibly  taken  with  a  view  of 
meeting  the  prejudices  of  anarchists  and  "  mutualists/' 
The  state  is  usually  called  the  police  force,  and  in  this 
capacity  it  is  held  to  be  only  a  temporary  necessity 
which  will  disappear  with  the  vanishing  of  the  classes 
that  have  successively  created  some  form  of  it  for  self- 
protection.  Quite  oblivious  to  the  inconsistency  of  sug- 
gesting the  possibility  of  an  association  of  men  in  which 
some  kind  of  coercive  force  is  not  present,  forgetting 
that  social  organization  connotes  coercion  of  some  sort, 
the  socialists  of  France  assert  and  reassert  the  immi- 
nent disappearance  of  state  as  they  define  it.     In  fact, 

29  Thus  the  present  state  is  said  to  be  the  creation,  organ 
and  sanction  of  the  proprietary  class.  Comp.  on  this  whole 
subject  of  the  socialist's  view  of  the  state,  Deville,  op.  cit., 
pp.  151-173. 

soDeville,  p.  153,  op.  cit. 

31  See  e.  g.  Guesde,  who,  in  a  long  speech  in  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  says,  "  Je  ne  sais  pas  ce  que  c*est  I'Etat ;  I'Etat, 
c'etait  Louis  XTV  au  dix-septi^me  si§cle;  I'Etat,  c'est  vous 
aujourd'hui;  I'Etat,  ce  sera  autre  chose  demain."  Double 
R^ponse  de  Jules  Guesde  n  MM.  De  Mun  et  Paul  Deschanel, 
Stance  des  15  et  24  Juin,  1896,  p.  14. 


312       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

in  the  eyes  of  the  most  of  the  socialists  of  France,  there 
is  nothing  more  to  be  desired  than  this  disappearance 
of  the  "  state/'  As  has  already  been  shown,  the  pro- 
gram of  the  party  insists  that  the  existing  state  is  the 
chief  impediment  to  that  change  in  social  conditions 
which  they  so  much  desire.  Unequal  property  rights, 
religious  intolerance,  matrimonial  slavery,  perverted  so- 
cial instincts  and  stunted  senses,  all  these  abnormal 
facts  must  continue  to  exist  so  long  as  the  present  state 
which  fosters  them  exists.  The  solution  of  the  whole 
trouble  will  come  when  the  proletariat  shall  get  social 
control. 

This  stated  somewhat  summarily,  is  the  Scientific  So- 
cialist's analysis  of  the  present  social  order.  In  regard 
to  the  materialistic  conception  of  history,  the  claim 
that  the  doctrine  is  a  dispassionate  examination  of  his- 
tory might  almost  be  admitted,  but  when  the  study 
of  present  social  conditions  is  in  question,  it  is  certainly 
mere  pretension.  Suspected  of  being  so  before,  "  Scien- 
tific Socialism  "  seems  without  doubt  partisan  when  its 
statements  with  regard  to  existing  moral  and  political 
institutions  are  considered.  This  class-struggle,  which 
is  mixed  up  with  property  forms  and  rests  upon  them 
and  surplus  value,  has  not  really  been  derived,  as  it  is 
claimed,  only  from  the  facts  of  human  existence. 
After  a  consideration  of  the  Scientific  Socialist's  analy- 
sis of  modern  society,  the  dangerously  simple  half- 
truths  advanced  by  Marxism  are  plainly  the  result  of  a 
desire  to  make  clear  the  injustice  to  which  it  is  thought 
the  society  of  to-day  subjects  the  laborer.  As  eco- 
nomic theory,  Marxism  becomes  a  protest  against  the 


SUMMARY  OF  SCIENTIFIC  SOCIALISM.        3^3 

distributive  justice  of  the  present  society  and  a  claim 
for  another  kind  of  justice  said  to  be  proven  valid  by  a 
sound  study  of  social  growth.  But  unfortunately  the 
protest  and  the  claim  have  staked  their  demand  for  a 
better  distributive  justice  upon  a  false  theory  of  value 
and  an  exaggeration  of  the  spread  and  necessity  of  pro- 
duction on  a  large  scale. 

In  fact,  while  it  has  seemed  proper  to  suggest  in  a 
cursory  way  some  of  the  more  striking  weaknesses  of 
the  doctrine  of  Scientific  Socialism,  it  must  be  confessed 
that,  after  all,  the  very  groundwork  of  the  theory  being 
false,  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  dwell  upon  the  rest. 
Marxism  fails  to  win  acceptance  first  of  all,  because 
it  represents  a  narrow  and  partial  view  of  social  prog- 
ress, an  unfortunate  blending  of  truth  and  untruth. 
Any  theory  that  offers  a  single  remedy  for  social 
diseases,  any  theory  that  neglects  the  countless  varia- 
tions of  subjective  and  objective  influences  in  favor 
of  any  one  particular  influence  and  holds  that  a  single 
alteration  in  society  is  the  key  to  a  permanent  solution 
of  social  destitution  and  misery,  discredits  itself  at  the 
outset  by  so  doing.  Add  to  this,  that  the  theory  by  its 
doctrine  of  necessity  destroys  for  the  ordinary  mind 
the  idea  of  human  responsibility ;  add  too,,  that  it 
preaches  association  and  talks  of  its  merits  as  against 
competition,  yet  asks  men  to  associate  in  a  struggle 
where  hate  is  the  social  motive  and  self-interest  the 
individual  motive.  A  theory  which  talks  about  com- 
munity of  interests  and  co-operation  for  the  common 
good,  yet  seeks  to  attain  these  ends  by  stirring  men's 
meanest  passions  and  reducing  all  aims  to  those  that 
end  in  self,  is  barely  consistent  and  certainly  not  in- 


314  MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM, 

spiring  to  that  better,  wider  sympathy  which  is  at  the 
root  of  all  social  progress.  Students  of  social  conditions 
grow  increasingly  certain  that  it  needs  perhaps  much 
that  the  Marxists  claim,  but  much  more  beside  and  some 
of  the  other  things  first,  before  any  change  in  undoubt- 
edly deplorable  conditions  can  be  hoped  for.  While 
the  best  informed  seem  justified  in  believing  that  there 
is  less,  not  more,  misery  now  than  in  the  past,  no  one 
doubts  there  is  misery  and  poverty,  plenty  and  to  spare, 
and  that  men  are  certainly  only  too  often  driven  by  cir- 
cumstances over  the  border-line  which  separates  the 
poor  from  the  destitute,  but  it  is  permissible  to  believe 
that  he  who  expects,  by  any  change  in  social  arrange- 
ments, to  do  away  with  regrettable  social  conditions  is 
one  who  has  forgotten  that  astounding  variable,  man, 
and  the  all-powerful  role  which  his  passions  and  habits 
play  in  shaping  the  quality  of  the  social  fabric. 

Such  an  expectation  is,  however,  as  has  been  seen, 
back  of  the  doctrines  of  Scientific  Socialism  now  ex- 
plained. With  even  more  of  hopefulness,  but  in  a  dif- 
ferent  spirit,  the  Integral  Socialists  also  look  to  a  cer- 
tain fundamental  change  to  bring  all  other  changes  in 
its  train. 

II. 

It  has  already  been  noted  that  the  militant  French  so- 
cialism of  the  day  represents  the  partial  fusion  of  two 
distinct  schools  of  thought.  The  two  theories  exist 
side  by  side  in  a  sort  of  tolerance  one  of  the  other  ;^2 
except  for  political  purposes,  they  have  not  united  on 
a  common  doctrine.    A  real  divergence  from  the  theory 

82  At  present  (Oct.,  1900)  the  newspapers  reporting  the 
Congress  at  Paris,  report  serious  rupture  between  the  two 
groups. 


INTEGRAL  SOCIALISM.  3I5 

of  the  Marxists,  makes  a  separate  statement  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Integral  Socialists  seem  necessary  even 
though  that  statement  may  involve  some  repetition. 

As  compared  to  the  school  whose  doctrine  has  just 
been  given,  the  most  striking  fact  with  regard  to  the 
Integral  theory  is  its  return,  in  formula  at  least,  to  the 
individualistic  thesis.  The  individual  is  restored  to  a 
directing  role  in  determining  the  trend  of  society.  No 
longer  held  to  be  merely  an  atomic  part  of  a  great  and 
necessary  evolution  that  is  primarily  economic,  each 
person  is  now  held  to  be  a  social  unit,  upon  whose  com- 
plete opportunity  to  develop  the  movement  and  direc- 
tion of  social  progress  depend. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  theoretical  statement,  at 
the  point  of  definition,  this  separation  between  the 
schools  is  clear.  Socialism  is  not  now  defined  as  "  The 
theoretic  expression  of  the  present  phase  of  economic 
evolution;  ''^^  it  is,  instead,  said  to  be  "  a  state  of  supe- 
rior civilization,  where,  except  for  an  easy  task,  all  men 
will  have  the  advantages  of  life  by  the  practice  of  solid- 
arity,"^* or  again,  socialism  is  ^^  humanity  marching 
toward  a  superior  civilization  and  carrying  in  the  vast 
folds  of  its  starry  mantle,  with  all  the  hopes  of  libera- 
tion and  justice  for  the  oppressed  and  the  exploited,  all 
the  high  mental  and  esthetic  aspirations  of  the  soul.''^ 
These  definitions  show  at  once  the  character  of  the  dif- 
ference between  the  two  schools  and  how  radical  it  is. 

33Deville,  op.  cit.,  p.  1. 

84  Bertrand.     Qu'est  ce  que  le  socialisme?  p.  2. 
ssMalon.     Precis   de   Socialisme,   p.    178,   ed.   Felix   Alcan, 
Paris,  1892. 


316       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

When  there  is  talk  of  the  aspirations  of  the  soul  and  of 
the  superior  state  of  civilization  the  new  social  order  ia 
to  bring,  it  is  evident,  not  only  that  all  pretense  of  be- 
ing a  scientific  study  of  society  has  been  abandoned,  but 
that  a  materialistic  socialist  philosophy  is  discredited 
for  one  that  recognizes  ideals. 

And  this  is,  in  fact,  the  fundamental  difference  be- 
tween the  two  schools.  Integral  Socialism  denies  that 
nothing  exists  except  that  of  which  the  senses  can  take 
account;  that  all  that  exists  and  happens,  exists  and 
happens  necessarily,  and  that  the  leading  principle  of 
all  organic  being,  whether  purely  brute  or  human,  is 
self-preservation  in  a  struggle  for  existence  which  is 
generated  by  the  unavoidable  desire  for  the  satisfaction 
of  hunger,  thirst  and  the  sexual  instinct.  Socialism, 
say  the  Independent  Socialists,  "is  not  necessary,  as 
Marxists  contend,  but  it  is  just."  Holding,  without 
any  particular  elaboration  of  the  fact,  to  an  animistic 
theory  of  creation,  holding  often  to  the  old  idea  of  a 
plan  which  arranged  this  world  as  a  means  for  the 
development  of  perfectible  human  nature,^^  Integral 
Socialism  regards  the  future  happiness  of  man  as  de- 
pendent upon  the  correct  comprehension  of  the  right 
ideal,  rather  than  upon  a  just  interpretation  of  the  • 
past  or  present.    It  is  declared  that  Marxism  is  wrong 

36  For  an  exact  repetition  of  the  old  theory,  see  an  inter- 
esting pamphlet  called  "  Le  Second  Commandement  de  la  Na- 
ture Divine  ou  le  Travail  Obligatoire,"  par  un  Travail leur 
(A  la  Bibliotheque  Socialiste  populaire,  Paris),  which  con- 
tains such  statements  as  "  Le  problSme  social  consiste  a 
mettre  le  lois  humaines  en  harmonic  avec  les  droits  que  nous 
tenons  d'elle  (la  nature)  et  avec  les  devoirs  qu'eUe  nous 
impose." 


ORIGIN  OF  SOCIETY.  317 

"  to  project  the  past  into  the  future  and  wish  to  regu- 
late what  will  be  by  what  has  been/'*"'  Integral  So- 
cialism believes  that  not  the  past,  but  the  ideal  which 
the  mind  of  man  can  formulate  is  to  be  the  guide  in  a 
conscious  struggle  for  the  well-being  of  humanity.  The 
only  way  to  determine  the  future  they  say,  is  to  order 
the  present  carefully  on  the  basis  of  a  sound  ideal. 
Consequently,  the  whole  aim  of  this  social  philosophy  is 
to  rouse,  not  class  hatred,  but  a  strong  moral  senti- 
ment, that  shall  finally  demand  an  arrangement  of  so- 
ciety on  the  lines  of  the  social  philosophy  which  the 
school  advocates.  Legitimate  inheritors  of  the  radi- 
cal thinking  of  their  own  country  in  the  past  genera- 
tion, we  find  this  school  of  socialists,  repeating  in  terms 
of  the  present  time  the  old  faith  in  the  power  of  an 
ideal  to  insure  the  moral  development  and  thus  the  so- 
cial happiness  of  man.^  The  doctrine  thus  proves  the 
superiority  of  its  ethics  to  that  of  Marxism;  at  least  it 
takes  human  nature  into  its  calculations,  realizing  the 
power  of  ideals  as  stimulus  and  uplift ;  recognizing  that 
thoughts  underlie  things  and  men,  institutions. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  theorists  of  the 
school  center  their  inquiry  about  social  problems.  The 
origin  and  aim  of  society,  and  the  relation  between 
society  and  the  individual,  more  particularly  as  that 
relation  concerns  the  political  and  economic  interests  — 

37Malon,  op.  cit.,  p.  142. 

38 "  Montrer  Tid^ale,  c'est  d'abord  cr^er  une  tendance  k  le 
r^aliser;  c'est  fournir  k  ceux  dont  la  poussi^re  de  combat 
peut  troubler  et  g&ner  la  vision,  le  seul  moyen  pratique  de 
discerner  si  telle  ou  telle  mesure  propo8§e  est  bien  orienter 
dans  le  sens  de  I'avenir."  Renard,  Le  Regime  socialiste,  p. 
23   (in  "Revue  Socialiste,"  Tome  27). 


31fi  MODERN  FUmcB  SOCIALISM, 

these  are  the  all-important  problems  that  the  school 
undertakes  to  solve.  To  explain  fully  their  point  of 
view  in  regard  to  these  two  undoubtedly  vital  ques- 
tions, will  give  sufficient  insight  into  the  doctrine  of 
the  party.^^ 

The  theory  of  Integral  Socialism,  concerning  the 
origin  and  aim  of  society,  runs  fairly  parallel  with  the 
more  generally  accepted  contemporary  theories  of  so- 
cial growth.  In  insisting  that  social  progress,  in  a 
causal  sequence,  is  a  self-evident  truth,*^  the  theory 
seems  to  fall  in  with  the  Marxian  doctrine.  But  social 
progress,  as  the  Independent  Socialists  understand  it, 
is  different,  for  it  rests  not  upon  "  necessity,^'  but  upon 
a  "  desire  for  the  realization  of  justice."  The  first  re- 
quisite to  progress  is  said  to  be  the  psychological  de- 
velopment of  man;  and  this  development,  it  is  con- 
tended, is  an  inherent  necessity  of  man's  being.  Eco- 
nomic conditions,  like  other  conditions,  are  only  the 
result  and  affirmation  of  the  ideas  which  are  the  mo- 
tive forces  to  all  facts  of  reality  past  and  present.  In- 
tegral Socialism  holds,  with  most  of  the  received  opin- 
ion of  the  day,  that  "  one  cannot  transform  manners 
and  laws  radically,  without  first  changing  minds  and 

39  While  the  works  of  Malon,  Jaurds,  Bertrand  and  most 
of  those  who  write  for  the  "  Revue  Socialiste  "  stand  for  the 
Integral  rather  than  the  purely  Marxian  theory,  the  most 
recent  exposition  of  the  doctrine  under  discussion,  as  given 
by  M.  Georges  Renard,  seems  so  much  the  most  orderly  and 
complete  statement  of  this  most  characteristically  French 
part  of  the  modern  socialistic  theory,  that  the  succeedmg 
pages  have  been  chiefly  based  upon  the  works  of  M.  Renard, 
professor  at  Lausanne  and  an  ardent  disciple  of  Malon. 

40  Renard,  p.  657,  op.  eit.,  Revue  Socialiste,  Tome  26,  "La 
8ocigt§  future  existe  a  F^tat  embryonnaire  au  sein  de  la  so- 

ci6t6  prgsente." 


SOCIAL   THEORY.  ^^^ 

hearts,  while  waiting  till  in  their  turn,  these  shall 
again  he  modified  hy  the  new  social  order."*^  Along 
with  most  social  science  of  the  time,  Integral  Socialism 
offers  the  conclusion  that  social  development  rests  upon 
man's  psychological  development.  They  only  depart 
from  the  strictly  scientific  point  of  view  when  they  as- 
sert, as  a  positive  fact,  that  this  social  development 
and  psychological  development  are  both  the  result  of 
an  inherent  need  in  each  individual  for  the  realization 
of  the  ideal  of  social  justice.  Thus,  the  idea  of  neces- 
sity, if  it  has  any  place  in  the  Integral  theory,  finds 
shape  as  the  inherent  necessity  for  the  realization  of 
justice  which,  along  with  other  instincts,  has  led  men 
to  come  together  in  organized  groups.  Man,  it  is  as- 
serted, was  not  only  created  that  he  might  attain  a  high 
degree  of  physical  development;  he  is  here  for  the  com- 
plete and  harmonious  development  of  all  his  faculties, 
physical,  mental  and  moral.  Whatever  the  creative 
force  is  held  to  be,  it  is  usually  counted  as  entirely 
apart  from  any  participation  in  the  work  of  develop- 
ment. Society  is  looked  upon  as  the  means  for  finally 
bringing  about  universal  social  harmony.  Defined  as 
the  "  ensemble  solidaire  de  tous  les  individus  qui  la 
composent,''^^  it  is  made  the  condition  and  means  to 
man's  development.  In  sum,  the  cause  of  society 
is  thought  to  be  the  nature  of  man,  who  is  a  "  social 
being; ''  that  is,  "  one  who  lives  in  society  and  is  obliged 
so  to  live,"^^  and  those  same  instincts  which  the  Phy- 
siocrats gave  their  "Natural  Man,"  the  instincts  of 

41  Renard.     Programme  de  la  Reyue  Socialiste,  1896. 
42Renard,  op.  cit.,  p.  399,  Tome  26. 
43  Ibid,  p.  387. 


320       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM, 

well-being  and  of  sociability,  now  severally  called  the 
instinct  for  the  "  satisfaction  of  the  individual  needs  " 
and  the  "  sexual  instinct/'  again  come  forward  as  the 
forces  that  draw  men  together. 

The  doctrine  is  plainly  that  which  holds  society  to 
be  an  organism  and  the  individual  only  an  organic 
part,  and,  in  a  sense,  a  product  of  that  organism. 
Great  stress  is  laid  upon  two  principles,  "  the  struggle 
for  existence  and  the  coalition  for  existence;"**  prin- 
ciples which,  generated  by  the  instincts  of  man,  be- 
come the  motive  forces  behind  all  true  association. 
The  first,  the  struggle  for  existence,  is  defined  as  that 
struggle  for  existence  among  individuals  which  grows 
out  of  the  innate  need  for  personal  development;  it  is 
competition,  the  stimulant  to  energy,  to  individual 
initiative  and  self-culture.  The  second,  the  coalition 
for  existence,  grows  out  of  the  individual  need  for  pro- 
tection and  sympathy;  it  is  the  result  of  man's  in- 
stinctive perception  of  the  fact  that  an  easier  and  fuller 
satisfaction  of  his  wants  comes  from  cooperation  of  ef- 
fort and  division  of  labor.  This  second  principle  makes 
for  solidarity,  and  solidarity  is  the  sole  means  by  which 
individual  happiness  can  finally  be  secured.  According 
to  this  theory,  social  forces,  generated  by  the  slow  or- 
ganization of  human  effort,  represent  the  really  domi- 
nating influence  in  individual  development.  All  the 
weight  of  argument  goes  to  show  the  creative  power 
of  the  distinctly  social  instincts,*^  and  the  individual  is 
regarded  as  a  complex  of  the  social  facts  these  in- 

**Renard,  op.  cit.,  p.  388. 

45  Jaur^s.    Id^alisme  et  Mat^rialisme,  p.  9. 


SOCIAL  THEORY.  321 

stincts  finally  generate.  Though  it  is  admitted  that 
man  himself  is  a  moral  being,  who  can  consciously  di- 
rect and  shape  the  further  character  of  the  social  forces, 
yet,  man,  as  he  finds  himself  on  coming  to  self-con- 
sciousness, is  held  to  be  essentially  a  social  product, 
the  result  of  certain  continually  developing  forces  of 
organized  society. 

Society  is  then  the  medium  to  individual  develop- 
ment; all  association  is  in  this  end.  Society  is  always 
for  the  service  of  the  individual.  If,  in  the  end  of  the 
best  possible  social  organization,  each  person  is  called 
upon  to  make  a  certain  subtraction  from  his  entire 
liberty  and  content,  all  such  denial  is  pointed  out  to 
be  in  the  end  of  an  enlightened  self-interest.  If  the 
leadership  of  society  is  to  be  desired,  it  is  because  it  is 
held  to  be  the  surest  means  to  an  end,  that  end  not 
individual  liberty,  but  individual  development."*^  Pam- 
phletary  exposition  of  what  is  said  to  be  the  truly  social 
regime,  usually  accents  the  greater  individual  liberty 
to  be  expected  under  that  regime,  and  leaves  the  idea 
of  social  authority  as  much  as  possible  in  abeyance, 
but  the  best  studies  in  Integral  Socialism  make  no 
such  concession  to  popular  prejudice;  it  is  clear  to 
them,  and  they  are  interested  to  show,  that  the  end 
is  the  best  possible  development  of  each  individual  in 
society.  Since  society  is  held  to  be  the  determining 
force,  it  is  believed  that  the  difficult  and  vital  point 
to  be  settled  is  the  relation  between  the  social  author- 
ity and  the  individual  autonomy  .'*'^ 

46Comp.  Renard,  op.  cit.,  chap.  1,  passim. 
47  Ibid,  p.  392. 

21  - 


322       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM, 

Whatever  of  weakness  and  inconsistency  there  is  in 
Integral  Socialism  stands  out  most  clearly  when  the 
terms  of  the  solution  they  offer  to  the  difficult  prob- 
lem of  the  relation  between  the  Individual  and  the 
State  are  understood.  The  first  principles  of  their  so- 
cial philosophy  are  scarcely  assailable.  The  doctrine 
recognizes  that  the  mainsprings  of  society  are  not 
things  but  men;  that  in  the  scale  of  human  destiny, 
brain  not  brawn  is  the  final  determinant,  and  it  like- 
wise recognizes  that  the  character  and  growth  of  each 
individual  life  does  and  always  will  determine  the 
whole  social  growth;  and  that,  therefore,  a  sense  of 
his  own  significance,  a  sense  of  duty  to  his  kind  and  of 
personal  responsibility  for  the  advancement  of  all  so- 
cial life,  is  a  necessity  to  social  well-being.  It  accepts 
and  states  clearly  the  doctrine  that  Progress  is  the 
strengthening  of  the  social  bond,  and  in  all  this  it  may 
be  said  to  have  adopted  the  best  teachings  of  our  time. 
But  the  same  can  hardly  be  said  of  the  polity  proposed 
by  the  doctrine. 

First  of  all,  viewed  as  a  political  theory,  the  method 
of  the  doctrine  seems  open  to  criticism.  Even  while 
the  school  condemns  the  earlier  methods  of  abstract 
reasoning,  even  while  they  seem  to  realize  that  the 
problems  of  politics  can  least  of  all  be  answered  by 
mere  rational  deduction,  they  have,  none  the  less,  set 
out  with  a  system  of  logical  demonstration  and  have 
almost  entirely  neglected  the  empirical  method.  In- 
tegral Socialists,  just  as  Morelly  or  Eousseau  did,^^  pose 

48Comp.  Code  de  la  Nature,  p.  14.  "  Trouver  une  situa- 
tion dans  laquelle  il  soit  presque  impossible  que  I'homme  soit 
d§prav$  ou  mechant ;  "  also  Rousseau,  ( Contrat  Social,  Bk.  I, 


INDIVIDUAL  RIGHTS.  3^3 

the  social  question  as  follows :  "  To  find  a  social  or- 
ganization such  that  each  human  being  may  develop  as 
completely  as  possible,  without  harming  and  even  while 
aiding  the  development  of  others."*^  This  is  clearly  to 
adopt  an  a  priori  method  for  the  solution  of  political 
problems,  and  it  is  this  method  which  dominates 
throughout  the  theory.  It  remains  to  show  the  diffi- 
culties which  result  from  following  such  a  course. 

The  theory  has  in  view  the  protection  of  the  in- 
dividual initiative,  and  its  first  aim,  therefore,  is  to 
formulate  the  rights  of  the  individual.  These  rights 
of  man  are  not  put  forward  as  Natural  Rights,  though 
it  might  be  said,  without  injustice,  that  they  are  really 
60  regarded.*^^  It  is  laid  down  that  men  are  alike  in 
kind  but  different  in  development,  and  that,  therefore, 
any  organization  formed  with  justice  as  the  end,  will 
give  each  member  of  the  community  opportunity  to 
develop  integrally;  that  is,  unequally.^^  Transferring 
the  basis  of  argument  from  the  realization  of  justice  to 
that  of  general  utility,  it  is  asserted  that  even  in  the 
ends  of  a  successful  social  life,  any  social  organization 
must  seek  to  insure  to  each  member  of  the  collectivity 
the  greatest  possible  liberty,  so  that  as  many  individuals 
as  may  be,  shall  be  enabled  to  satisfy  their  wants  and 
develop  integrally.     It  sounds  like  Herbert   Spencer, 

ch.  vi),  "  Trouver  une  forme  d'association  qui  dgfende  et  qui 
protdge  de  toute  la  force  commune,  la  personne  et  les  biens  de 
chaque  associe  et  par  laquelle  chacun  s'unissant  H  tous,  n'obeir 
pourtant  qu'fl  lui-mSme.'* 

49Renard,  p.  392. 

50  Comp.  discussion  of  rights,  Renard,  op.  cit.,  pp.  400-482, 
Tome  26. 

61  Ibid,  pp.  380-391. 


324:  MODERN  FRENCH  S0CIAIjI8M. 

rather  than  a  socialistic  theory,  to  find  it  laid  down 
that  the  ultimate  aim  of  all  organization  is  "the  pro- 
gressive substitution  of  individual  autonomy  for  all 
regulation  imposed  from  without/'^^  Independent  So- 
cialists reiterate  always  that  the  end  of  association  is 
individual  development,  and,  to  that  end,  the  fullest 
possible  liberty  is  necessary.  When,  however,  liberty 
is  defined  as  "  the  rights  reserved  to  the  individual  by 
the  \aw/'^^  and  it  is  further  said  that  each  person  is 
to  have  as  much  liberty  as  is  consonant  with  the  rights 
of  others,  it  is  evident  that  these  definitions,  and  even 
the  formulation  of  rights  that  follows,  give  nothing 
beyond  a  very  general  suggestion  of  the  amount  and 
character  of  liberty  to  be  expected  under  a  socialistic 
regime.  After  all,  the  test  of  the  individual  rights  is 
held  to  be  that  very  elastic  term,  the  well-being  of  so- 
ciety.*^* The  socialistic  idea  of  social  justice  is  a  widely 
different  thing  from  the  idea  of  justice  that  usually 
goes  along  with  the  idea  of  individual  rights,  for  it  in- 
cludes the  conception  of  entire  socialistic  control  of 
industrial  life.  It  seems  ailmost  farcical  to  elaborate  a 
declaration  of  individual  rights  and  then  make  such 
a  social  justice  the  ultimate  and  final  arbiter  concern- 
ing how  much  right  to  develop  shall  be  accorded  to 
each  individual  within  the  association. 

In  fairness,  it  must  be  said  of  the  Integral  theory, 
that  the  intention,  if  not  their  perception  of  practical 
truths,  seems  honest  enough.  The  love  of  personal 
liberty  is  strong  in  the  Independent  Socialist,  and  the 
rights  which    he  categorically  claims    as  inalienably 

52  Renard,  op.  cit.,  p.  403. 

53  Ibid,  p.  394. 
64  Ibid,  p.  518. 


INDIVIDUAL  RIGHTS.  325 

those  of  every  member  of  society,  are  even  more  nu- 
merous than  those  an  individualistic  society  asks  for. 
The  Integral  Socialists  claim  that  the  individual  should 
have  reserved  to  him  as  his  right/^  perfect  freedom  in 
the  domain  of  conscience;  right  to  fair  play,  to  jus- 
tice; right  to  choose  his  own  country  ;^^  right  to  se- 
curity of  life,  person  and  property;  right  to  free  ex- 
pression of  opinion,  whether  by  voice  or  by  pen;  right 
to  physical  development  and  education;  right  to  free 
choice  of  a  mate  and  to  perfect  freedom  in  sexual  rela- 
tions except  in  the  case  of  a  family .^"^  Here  are  un- 
doubtedly rights  enough,  more  than  any  system  of 
positive  law  has  ever  been  able  to  grant.  But,  as 
has  been  said,  to  enumerate  a  series  of  rights  is  one 
thing;  to  find  a  government  which  can  insure  them  is 
quite  another.  To  debate  the  advisability  of  an  un- 
qualified adoption  of  the  whole  bill  of  rights  formu- 
lated above  would  be  beside  the  point.     What  is  here 

55  For  the  discussion  of  the  whole  subject  of  rights,  see 
Renard,  op.  cit.,  pp.  cit.,  pp.  400-417;  also  pp.  513-517. 

56  The  demand  for  this  kind  of  freedom  is  evidently  a  re- 
sult of  the  new  international  or  anti-national  feeling  so  preva- 
lent in  current  socialism. 

57  The  only  reservation  to  ths  unqualified  enjoyment  of 
this  right  is  said  to  be  the  right  of  society  to  fix  the  age  of 
nubility.  After  that,  men  and  women  shall  be  allowed  to  con- 
trol their  own  destinies.  Laws  may  only  forbid  marriage  of 
too  close  relationship  and  register  the  free  contract  under- 
taken by  two  persons  desiring  to  form  a  family.  The  only 
reason  which  the  family  has  for  existence  is  the  development 
of  the  child.  When  society,  doing  its  duty,  shall  replace  the 
parent  in  the  care  of  the  young  of  the  community,  the  family 
will  have  no  further  reason  for  existence.  Thus  Integral 
Socialism  indorses  the  short-sighted  objections  to  the  mar- 
riage contract  and  the  family  which  have  been  the  regularly 
recurring  weakness  of  all  radicals  of  their  class.  (See  the 
idealistic  but  interesting  discussion  in  Renard,  op.  cit.,  pp. 
515-517,  Revue  Socialiste,  Tome  26.) 


326       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

in  question  is  a  study  of  the  principles  of  Integral  So- 
cialism. It  is  sufficient  to  find  how  far  the  system  of 
social  organization,  mapped  out  by  Integral  Socialists, 
seems  calculated  to  insure  any  such  extended  liberty 
as  their  own  fundamental  principles  claim  as  the  right 
of  each  individual.  Before  answering  this  question,  it 
is  of  first  moment,  in  justice  to  the  reader  and  to  the 
school  itself,  to  state  the  carefully  worked-out  theory 
regarding  the  functions  of  state,  especially  as  these  con- 
cern the  relation  between  the  state  and  the  individual. 

In  order  that  the  rights  of  each  member  of  so- 
ciety shall  be  respected  as  fully  as  possible.  Integral  So- 
cialists conceive  that,  as  a  general  proposition,  social 
authority  must  be  much  occupied.  All  of  the  func- 
tions usually  assigned  to  the  state^^  are  conceived  to  be- 
long to  it;  it  is  the  state  that  must  attend  to  the  estab- 
lishment and  regulation  of  public  defenses,  the  mainte- 
nance of  public  order,  the  regulation  of  the  relations 
with  foreign  nations  and  the  organization  of  public 
education. 

The  Integral  Socialist's  view  concerning  the  nature 
of  these,  the  functions  of  state  that  give  security  to 
person  and  property,  evidence  each  one,  a  certain  ap- 
preciation of  the  essential  weaknesses  of  society  at  the 
present  time,  and  a  consuming  desire  to  see  them  all 
done  away  with.  Social  authority  is  thought  of  as 
arbiter  and  stimulator,  the  peacemaker  and  educator  for 
the  individual  who  creates  such  authority.  There  is 
no  part  of  the  social  fabric  in  which  the  state  is  not 

58  The  state  is  always  called  society,  in  pursuit  of  an  evi- 
dently fixed  intention  to  avoid  the  word  state,  which  is  such 
a,  bugbear  in  the  eyes  of  all  socialists, 


INDIVIDUAL  RIGHTS.  327 

believed  to  have  of  right  an  interest.^^  Integral  So- 
cialists, in  spite  of  their  "  individualism,"  are  entirely 
socialists  in  this,  that  wherever  they  discern  social  evils 
they  look  to  remedying  them  by  means  of  social  inter- 
vention. The  state,  as  head  of  the  public  defenses,  is 
gradually  to  abolish  militarism,  for  armies  are  regarded 
as  an  evil  to  be  dispensed  with  as  soon  as  possible.  It 
follows  that  arbitration  is  the  ideal  for  diplomatic  re- 
lations. All  discussions  which  threaten  to  bring  about 
quarrels  between  nations  are  to  be  settled  by  courts  of 
arbitration.^^  The  state,  as  preserver  of  the  internal 
peace  of  the  nation,  is  to  make  justice  swift  and  sure; 
codes  of  law  and  judicial  procedure  are  to  be  simplified 
and  the  execution  of  the  law  is  to  aim  at  preventive 
even  more  than  curative  measures.  Penologists,  for  in- 
stance, are  recommended  to  guide  themselves  by  such 
enlightened  maxims  as  that  one  which  describes  the 
criminal  as  a  *^  dangerous  sick  person,"  against  whom 
it  is  necessary  to  protect  the  rest  of  society,  but  whom 
it  is  above  all  requisite  to  cure  if  possible  by  enlighten- 
ing his  intelligence  and  strengthening  his  will."^^  The 
extreme  importance  and  difficulty  of  the  state  function 
as  public  educator  is  fully  recognized,  and  the  general 
plan®^  aims  most  of  all  at  establishing  freedom  of  opin- 
es Best  statement  of  the  socialistic  view  of  the  function  of 
society  is  to  be  found  in  Renard,  op.  cit.,  pp.  517-542,  Revue 
Socialiste,  Tome  26. 

60  Renard,  op.  cit.,  pp.  528,  529. 

61  Ibid.,  p.  533. 

62  Ibid,  p.  535.  The  following  are  put  forward  as  leading 
principles  for  an  educational  system.  Every  child  is  to  have 
a  similar  training  in  the  elements  of  education,  and  all  edu- 
cation is  to  be  free.  To  meet  the  undoubted  inequity  of  an 
entirely  free  higher  education  supported  by  the  whole  state. 


328       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM, 

ion  and  fullest  opportunity  for  the  special  development 
of  each  particular  kind  of  capacity  and  talent. 

These  suggestive  general  principles  might  be  of  real 
value,  for  they  are  those  of  any  enlightened  social 
theory,  if  only  Integral  Socialists  were  better  able  to 
bridge  that  difficult  and  treacherous  gulf  between  gen- 
eral truths  and  specific  laws.  If  Integral  Socialism 
were  a  philosophy,  not  a  political  theory  asking  for  the 
earliest  possible  application,  there  would  be  only  ap- 
plause for  these  principles  which  it  advocates,  but  the 
doctrine  asks  for  the  nearly  instantaneous  and  universal 

a  plan  that  seems  really  to  increase  the  inequality  of  the  pres- 
ent method  is  proposed.  Higher  education  is  not  only  to  be 
unpaid  for,  but  every  minor  is  to  be  supported  by  the  govern- 
ment throughout  the  period  of  education,  so  that  none  may 
lose  the  advantages  of  enlightenment  on  account  of  economic 
disability.  When  it  is  reflected  how  the  present  system  of  free 
higher  education  is  of  doubtful  equity  because  the  poor  must 
give  toward  the  support  of  schools  of  which  only  the  well- 
to-do  as  a  class  get  the  advantages,  it  scarcely  seems  a  solu- 
tion of  the  question  to  make  the  government  give  not  only 
free  education  but  support  as  well  to  all  persons  desiring 
higher  education.  Unless  human  intelligence  shall  change 
markedly,  it  will  be  the  majority  who  will  pay  and  the  mi- 
nority who  will  reap  the  advantage.  As  to  the  character  of 
the  higher  education,  society  is  to  see  that  each  and  every 
kind  of  doctrine  has  free  field ;  that  each  student  be  free  to 
place  himself  under  whomsoever  he  please  and  at  examina- 
tion shall  never  be  judged  by  the  doctrines  he  advances,  but 
only  by  his  manner  of  presenting  them.  Departing  thus 
widely  from  many  previous  socialistic  schemes  for  education, 
the  plan  is  arranged  in  the  end  of  extreme  tolerance  of  all 
opinions,  and  the  hope  for  public  well-being  is  not,  as  in  the 
past,  based  upon  the  general  dissemination  of  any  one  set  of 
doctrines  (comp.  schemes  of  Morelly,  Babeuf,  and  even  Louis 
Blanc ) ,  but  upon  a  belief  of  the  broadening  and  strengthening 
influences  of  fraternity  and  widest  culture.  For  full  explana- 
tion of  the  educational  ideas,  see  Renard,  op.  cit.,  pp.  535- 
542;  also  Paul  Robin,  Une  manuel  d'education  Integral,  Revue 
Socialiste,  Oct.,  1895;  or  Boulard,  Philosophic  et  pratique  du 
^ocialisme  Integral,  pp.  137,  138, 


THEORY  OF  GOVERNMENT,  329 

realization  of  a  pure  democracy,  which,  in  addition  to 
the  powers  already  noted  as  those  belonging  to  the 
central  authority,  shall  have  as  first  and  most  important 
service  the  duty  of  controlling  the  economic  affairs 
of  the  community. 

It  is  held  to  be  axiomatic  that  each  individual  should 
be  part  of  the  sovereign  body  which  makes  the  funda- 
mental law  and  so  determines  the  character  of  all  asso- 
ciation. In  theory,  the  political  autonomy  of  the  in- 
dividual is  regarded  as  entire,  and  in  practice  it  is  to 
be  as  great  as  possible,  for  it  is  argued  that  the  full 
expansion  of  the  individual  character  can  only  be 
brought  about  by  a  polity  which  recognizes  this  truth. 
The  system  aims  to  give  every  member  of  the  nation 
an  equal  share  in  government,  and  it  is,  therefore,  based 
upon  universal  suffrage,  by  which  is  meant  a  suffrage 
irrespective  of  sex.  The  political  form  by  which  In- 
tegral Socialism  expects  to  accomplish  its  ends  may 
be  briefly  described  as  a  democratic  federation  where 
there  is  no  administrative  centralization  except  for  the 
purpose  of  organizing  industry.^^  Like  most  French 
radicals  of  the  century,  like  most  contemporary  so- 
cialists, they  declare  that  the  watchword  is  political 
decentralization.^  The  country  is  to  be  divided  into 
small  local  units;  these  are  to  be  coordinated  and  fed- 
erated and  are  to  be  practically  autonomous  except,  as 

63  The  political  system  of  the  Integral  Socialists,  as  out- 
lined by  M.  Renard,  is  in  the  Regime  Soeialiste,  pp.  646-652, 
Revue  Soeialiste,  Tome  26.  It  closely  follows  Malon.  See 
e.  g.  Precis  de  Socialisme,  chaps.  XXIX  and  XXX,  ed.  1892. 

64Comp.  e.  g.  the  idea  of  the  least  partisan  of  English  so- 
cialists as  expressed  in  the  Fabian  Essays,  pp.  189  et  seq.; 
also  pp.  231,  232,  Am.  ed.  1891. 


T^S 


330       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

has  been  said,  for  matters  concerning  the  industrial 
activity  of  the  nation,  cooperating  otherwise  only  when 
it  is  necessary  to  make  the  fundamental  national  law. 
Government  as  an  institution  gets  the  same  interpreta- 
tion that  Eousseau  gave  to  it;  it  is  mere  executive. 
The  functionaries  who  are  to  compose  it  are  to  be 
selected  by  direct  election,  and  need  to  have  no  qualifi- 
cation beyond  being  native  born  and  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  unless  the  office  asks  for  special  equipment,  when 
there  is  to  be  a  competitive  examination.  Eepresenta- 
tive  government  is  frowned  upon  exactly  as  Eousseau 
frowned  upon  it;  it  is  called  "a  wretched  expedient 
which  makes  the  happiness  of  the  nation  dependent 
upon  the  strength  of  a  few  men.^'^  It  is  to  be  done  away 
with  as  soon  as  possible.  Meanwhile,  as  long  as  the 
"  expedient "  continues  necessary,  men  should  at  least 
seek  to  establish  a  representative  government  accord- 
ing to  principles,  not  according  to  personality.  A 
trust  in  the  rationality  of  men  and  the  probity  of  party 
leaders  scarcely  warranted  by  anything  that  party 
politics  can  show  in  the  past  or  present,  impels  these 
theorists  to  propose  that,  in  order  to  commence  the 
better  order  of  things,  it  would  be  best  to  begin  by 
voting  on  programs  put  forward  by  contending  parties, 
leaving  to  the  persons  supporting  each  program  the  se- 
lection of  the  men  who  will  most  effectively  represent 
the  successful  program.  Men  are  to  vote  "  less  and  less 
concerning  men  and  more  and  more  concerning 
things."  The  whole  scheme  rests  upon  unlimited  faith 
in  the  educational  power  of  the  franchise.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  a  general  and  frequent  participation  of  each 

65  Cf.  Rousseau.     Contrat  Social,  Bk.  Ill,  ch.  i. 


THEORY  OF  OOYERNMENT.  331 

individual  in  the  law-making  power,  by  means  of  a 
constant  use  of  the  referendum  and  popular  initiative 
for  everything  except  local  ordinances,  will  finally  make 
the  social  authority  what  it  really  should  be,  "  the  or- 
gan charged  to  assure  to  all  members  of  society,  liberty, 
security  and  the  satisfaction  of  economic  needs." 

Integral  Socialism  seems  thus  to  rest  in  plain  terms, 
as  Marxism  does  by  inference,  upon  an  entire  accept- 
ance of  the  unqualified  and  universal  value  of  democ- 
racy. Now,  democracy  starts  with  the  belief  that  the 
rule  of  the  general  will  is  always  for  the  benefit  of  each 
and  every  individual.  Men  who  are  ready  to  commit 
to  the  collective  will  the  control  of  their  standard  of 
comfort,  and  thus  the  development  of  their  esthetic 
and  intellectual  life  must  have  great  faith  in  human 
nature,  and  especially  in  the  efficacy  of  its  collective 
expression.  They  must  believe  that  the  general  will 
is  at  any  given  time  the  best  guide  for  the  conduct  of 
social  affairs ;  that  the  general  will  can  be  counted  upon 
to  express  itself;  that  it  is  always  able  to  express  itself, 
and  that  when  that  general  will  is  expressed,  it  can 
and  will  be  always  carried  out  by  the  functionaries 
deputed  to  execute  it.  They  must  believe  that  in  most 
men  there  is  a  permanently  active  desire  to  see  justice 
realized  not  only  in  regard  to  themselves,  but  in  re- 
gard to  others,  whence  it  follows  that  each  individual 
is  thought  to  be  really  ready  to  work  toward  a  more 
general  content  by  sacrificing  a  share  of  his  individual 
well-being  whenever  such  abnegation  seems  necessary 
for  the  good  of  his  neighbor.  It  has  been  too  often 
and  too  overwhelmingly  shown,  in  the  mass  of  accu^ 


332       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

mulated  experience,  that  the  contrary  of  all  this  is  more 
likely  to  be  the  fact.  Ochlocracy  has  usually  resulted 
wherever  the  theory  of  pure  and  decentralized  democ- 
racy has  found  a  sanction  in  the  laws  of  any  nation 
whose  life  is  at  all  complex.  Thoughtful  persons  thus 
hesitate  to  see  applied  politics  rest  upon  an  unreserved 
acceptation  of  the  entire  validity  of  popular  judgment 
and  the  undoubted  efficacy  of  its  control.  Modern 
French  socialists,  however,  as  their  general  principle 
of  a  universally  applied  pure  democracy  makes  clear, 
do  believe  in  the  soundness  of  such  entire  faith  in  hu- 
man unselfishness  and  judgment,  and  the  theory  they 
advance  is  then,  in  so  far,  idealistic,  rather  than  scien- 
tific. Likewise,  in  that  the  concept  of  pure  democracy 
is  a  logical  rather  than  an  historical  or  practic- 
able form  of  government.  Integral  Socialism,  when 
it  advocates  that  form,  seems  thus  again  to  repre- 
sent a  reversion  to  an  idealistic  social  philosophy. 
Upholding  an  ideal  of  government  that  is  looked 
upon  as  fit  for  all  peoples;  failing  to  recognize 
the  value  of  that  form  of  government  which 
natural  propensities  and  traditions  have  developed  in 
a  given  nation,  Integral  Socialism  supports  a  move- 
ment for  the  universal  adoption  of  one  single  type  of 
government,  and  thus  lays  itself  open  to  the  challenge 
of  having  neglected  the  fundamental  principle  of  any 
well-grounded  political  theory. 

It  is  not  the  intention  to  deny  that  democracy,  un- 
der specific  conditions,  might  be  practicable  and  ad- 
visable. The  contention  is  that,  as  the  means  to  con- 
duct a  large  highly-organized  national  life,  such  as  In- 


THEORY  OF  (lOVERNMENT,  333 

tegral  Socialism  suggests,  pure  democracy  with  the 
accent  on  local  government  seems  utterly  impracticable 
in  the  light  of  all  human  experience.  Pure  democracy, 
with  a  popular  initiative  and  referendum  used  as  pro- 
posed, would  always  make  for  a  slowness  of  legislation 
and  an  uncertainty  of  policy  that  would  militate 
greatly  against  any  general  well-being,  not  to  mention 
the  constant  ijiterference  with  personal  pursuits  which 
would  be  increasingly  inevitable  and  irksome  under  the 
frequent  necessity  of  taking  a  hand  in  lawmaking.  It 
is  an  interesting  question  how  far  the  complete  politi- 
cal freedom  that  is  implied  in  the  entire  use  of  the 
referendum  and  initiative,  is  consonant  with  a  general 
social  freedom.  The  greatly  increased  leisure  of  each 
member  of  society  that  is  promised  under  the  socialist 
regime  seems,  on  any  serious  thought,  much  in  jeopardy 
in  consideration  of  the  numerous  political  services 
which  would  be  entailed  by  the  conscientious  perform- 
ance of  the  civic  duties  it  would  impose.  If  it  be  ar- 
gued that  under  the  democratic  system  which  the  school 
advances,  it  is  not  intended  to  leave  large  areas  to  demo- 
cratic control;  that  by  accenting  the  communal  life  the 
intention  is  to  reduce  the  political  unit  to  the  size  tra- 
ditionally held  necessary  for  the  successful  conduct  of 
democratic  government,  it  might  then  be  fairly  replied 
that  the  whole  success  of  highly-developed  civilized  life, 
such  as  large  cities  have,  rightly  or  wrongly,  taught 
men  to  consider  necessary  for  their  best  development 
and  enjoyment;  that  is,  a  civilized  life  such  as  Integral 
Socialism  itself  indorses,  requires  communal  units 
which  shall  be  composed  of  not  less  than  600,000  per- 


334  MODERlf  FREKCH  SOCIALISM, 

sons.  Unless  the  separate  groups  be  of  at  least  this 
size,  the  pecuniary  support  which  advance  civilization 
must  ask  of  each  individual  in  the  interests  of  the  sani- 
tary and  moral  efficiency  of  a  collective  life,  would  bear 
too  heavily  upon  each  individual.  Modern  communi- 
ties demand  then  that  which,  relative  to  the  question  in 
hand,  is  a  large  number  of  persons;  large  groups  of 
persons  have  never  yet  been  successfully  controlled  on 
purely  democratic  lines,  such  as  the  Integral  scheme  de- 
mands, nor  does  the  outlook  seem  to  promise  anything 
different  in  any  near  future.  Unless  then,  along  with 
an  alteration  in  political  institutions,  the  new  social 
theory  can  promise  to  give  to  Man,  not  some  men,  the 
as  yet  unrealized  power  to  see  and  act  swiftly  for  the 
general  good,  unless  it  can  promise  to  give  to  collective 
man  the  power  to  resist  his  apparently  innate  tendency 
to  fall  under  personal  leadership,  and  finally  can  pledge 
itself  to  give  him  the  willingness  to  be  unselfishly  first 
and  almost  absorbingly  a  citizen,  unless  this  scarcely 
thinkable  psychological  change  can  be  effected  through- 
out the  social  fabric,  it  does  not  seem  probable  that  a 
decentralized  democracy,  such  as  Integral  Socialism 
plans,  can  get  a  permanent  place  as  a  reliable  and  help- 
ful medium  for  such  social  direction  and  cooperation 
as  is  necessary  for  any  highly  organized  society. 

It  would  seem  then  that  the  political  form  at  which 
Integral  Socialism  aims,  by  no  means  makes  absolutely 
certain  those  individual  rights  which  the  system  in- 
tends to  protect  and  foster.  On  the  contrary,  there 
seems  attendant  upon  the  plan  the  real  danger  of  a 
constant  and  fretting  uncertainty  as  to  the  national 


PROBLEM  OF  PltOPERTY,  335 

policy  and  a  wearing  interference  with  personal  pur- 
suits, along  with  an  all-pervading  danger  of  an  insuffi- 
cient or  an  arbitrary  and  despotic  social  control,  which 
can  do  so  much  to  weaken  or  degenerate  the  individual 
character,  and  to  oppress  in  no  uncertain  way  an  ap- 
preciable part  of  the  community.  This  is  true  with  ad- 
ditional force  when  the  plea  for  vesting  in  society  the 
control  of  the  industrial  life  is  considered. 

The  immediate  aim  of  this  social  philosophy  is 
of  course  to  invest  society  with  the  controlling  power  in 
relation  to  the  industrial  domain.  It  is  this  function 
of  society  which,  being  held  at  once  most  important 
and  most  novel,  gets  most  attention  and  most  justifica- 
tion. Integral  Socialists  recognize  that  their  plan  for 
the  economic  organization  of  society  rests  upon  some 
principles  which  represent  an  important  separation 
from  recognized  theory.  They  know  that  they  are  mak- 
ing assertions  which  are  at  least  open  to  argument 
when  they  hold  that  it  is  just  and  beneficial  for  society 
to  own  all  its  productive  property;  when  they  contend 
that  each  man  must  give  of  his  labor  where  he  can, 
and  must  receive  the  support  of  society  where  he  is  in- 
capable of  earning  his  own  living ;  or  when,  finally,  they 
assert  that  the  labor  which  each  man  gives  toward  social 
production  is  that  which  at  once  gives  value  to  the  ar- 
ticle he  creates  and  establishes  the  measure  of  his  share 
in  the  whole  product.  It  is  these  three  propositions 
which  are  chief  in  the  eyes  of  the  school;  these  estab- 
lished, they  believe  the  social  direction  of  the  industrial 
domain  to  be  justified  both  from  the  ethical  and  the  util- 
itarian point  of  view. 


336       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM, 

But  there  is  one  thing  they  feel  called  upon  to  do 
preliminary  to  proving  the  validity  of  these  claims. 
Since  Integral  Socialists  have  it  most  at  heart  to  demon- 
strate the  equity  of  their  aims,  it  is  of  first  interest  to 
them  to  show  why  society  and  not  the  individual  has 
the  right  to  the  deciding  voice  in  the  adjustment  of  all 
economic  relations. 

Integral  philosophy  says  truly  enough  that  the  indi- 
vidual comes  into  the  world  with  an  enormous  debt  to 
past  ages,  a  debt  accumulated  for  him  in  the  mass  of 
stored-up  knowledge  which  society  puts  at  his  disposal, 
especially  the  knowledge  of  how  to  satisfy  his  wants 
readily.  His  original  share  in  knowing  how  to  produce 
or  in  the  actual  work  of  production  is  said  to  be  infini- 
tesimal compared  to  the  share  of  society;  his  right  to 
the  initiative  in  question  of  production  is  therefore  held 
to  be  comparatively  small.  The  fact  is  altogether  re- 
jected that  such  arguments  apply  with  additional  force 
to  the  political  sphere.  The  debt  of  the  individual  to 
society  is  indisputable,  but  surely  no  other  debt  is  sec- 
ondary to  that  which  he  owes  the  public  authority  that 
has  given  him  the  security  without  which  there  could 
have  been  no  development  of  the  productive  facilities 
whereby  he  has  benefited  so  much.  Following  this  ar- 
gument of  the  Integral  school,  the  individual  could  as 
well  be  denied  his  initiative  in  political  affairs  as  in 
those  purely  economic.  If  social  interference  with  ab- 
solute economic  freedom  could  find  no  better  argument 
than  this,  it  would  surely  have  no  right  to  be  rationally 
considered. 

However,   Integral   Socialism,   as  has  been  shown, 


PROBLEM  OF  PROPERTY.  337 

leaves  the  individual  entirely  free  in  the  political  do- 
main, but  bravely  contends  with  no  sounder  argument 
than  the  one  just  given,  that  in  his  industrial  activity, 
justice  demands  that  he  be  denied  a  position  of  inde- 
pendence. The  right  and  duty  of  social  control  in  the 
economic  domain  is  taken  as  a  premise  of  the  whole 
Integral  Socialistic  theory.  The  school  next  under- 
takes to  show  how,  in  order  to  fulfill  effectively  its  func- 
tion of  directing  industrial  activity,  society  must  hold 
all  land  and  other  fixed  means  of  production. 

Clearly  realizing  that,  in  assuming  collective  control 
of  land  and  the  other  means  of  production,  they  are 
assuming  that  which  needs  defense,  M.  Kenard  and 
those  who  agree  with  him  are  at  great  pains  to  prove 
that  social  ownership  of  the  source  and  means  of  pro- 
duction is  both  "  just  and  beneficial ''  for  the  individ- 
ual.^ The  arguments  advanced  are  not  new  in  the  so- 
cialistic theory.  There  is  less  than  the  wonted  modern 
tendency  to  treat  the  question  of  property  as  a  purely 
economic  question  instead  of  keeping  it  where  it  rightly 
belongs  in  the  legal  or  ethical  field.  Integral  Socialists 
are  above  all  anxious  to  prove  that  it  is  just  for  society 
to  hold  property,  and  on  this  point  the  grounds  of  the 
arguments  adopted  are  entirely  ethical;  there  is,  how- 
ever, a  weak  additional  claim  for  the  beneficial  results 
of  such  property-holding  where  beneficial  is  meant  in 
an  economic  sense. 

MThe  problem  of  property  is  discussed  in  full  by  Renard, 
in  "  Le  Regime  Socialiste,"  p.  396  and  pp.  405-417,  Revue  So- 
cialiste,  Tome  26.  Comp.  also  an  article  Propri6t6  individuelle 
et  Propriety  sociale"  by  De  Potter  in  the  Revue  Socialiste, 
Jan.,  1898,  p.  70. 

2Z 


338       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

To  show  the  justice  of  making  productive  property 
collective,  the  arguments  start  from  the  "fruits  of 
labor  "  axiom.  It  is  held  proven,  as  it  has  been  con- 
tended by  socialists  for  a  century,  that  what  a  man  earns 
by  his  own  labor  belongs  to  him,  but  that  that  which  is 
made  by  no  man,  as  land,  or  that  which  is  the  result 
of  social  effort,  as  productive  capital,  can  rightfully  be- 
long to  none  but  the  collectivity.  Under  modern  con- 
ditions it  is  asserted,  all  labor  is  of  necessity  collective 
labor;  and  this,  connoting  collective  means  of  labor,  con- 
notes as  well  social  ownership  of  everything  but  con- 
sumption goods.  More,  it  is  insisted  that  men  have 
only  a  right  to  whatever  they  may  earn  during  their 
lifetime,  for  it  is  considered  plain  that  individual  prop- 
erty becomes  collective  property  whenever  it.  ceases  to 
be  the  result  of  individual  earnings.  It  is  besides 
urged,  as  it  has  often  been  before,  that  in  leaving  to 
society  whatever  they  may  have  amassed,  men  are  only 
paying  to  society  a  portion  of  the  debt  they  owe  it  for 
their  own  development.  The  state  is  then  held  to  be 
the  only  rightful  owner  and  inheritor  of  collective  prop- 
erty. The  old  hope  stirs  again  to  do  away  with  the 
"  domination  of  money,  one  of  the  greatest  slaveries  that 
ever  existed,''  and  this  change  is  looked  for  when  the 
ownership  of  productive  property  is  where  it  ought  to 
be,  in  the  hands  of  the  collectivity. 

All  of  this  might  be  ethically  sound  enough  if  the 
right  to  the  fruits  of  labor  was  as  axiomatic  as  it  is 
taken  to  be.  Independent  Socialists  themselves  say, 
that  right  rests  with  the  law;  that  it  is  the  law  made  by 
society  that  constitutes  social  justice.   Where  then,  does 


PROBLEM  OF  PROPERTY.  339 

a  "  right  to  the  fruits  of  labor  ^^  come  from  until  society 
has  made  it?  Why  a  right  to  fruits  of  labor  any  more 
than  a  right  to  unlimited  leisure  or  the  like?  If  there 
be  fundamental  rights  external  to  society  which  can 
intrude  as  subversive  to  a  given  social  order,  the  su- 
preme value  of  social  control  seems  doubtful.  If  all 
rights  exist  only  as  society  grants  them,  then  the 
"right  to  the  fruits  of  labor ^'  must  be  socially  con- 
sented to,  before  it  can  be  "  just ''  that  it  shall  become 
the  basis  for  a  new  partition  of  property.  Wherever 
society  shall,  by  modern  methods  of  concurrence,  con- 
sent to  such  an  arrangement,  it  is  probable  that  it  will 
come  about;  it  will  then  certainly  be  just.  Until  such 
a  time  the  "  right  to  the  fruits  of  labor ''  seems  an  un- 
certain foundation  for  an  ethical  or  legal  plea. 

It  is  curious,  that  while  M.  Eenard  and  the 
rest  of  the  school  assert  the  injustice  of  the  present 
private  property  form,  they  recognize  national  property. 
It  is  certain  that  national  property  is  usually  derived 
from  spoliation  or  usurpation.  Is  that  just  for  society 
which  is  inequitable  for  the  individual?  Unless  the 
force  which  gained  national  territory  be  called  labor, 
which,  of  course,  subverts  the  whole  theory,  national 
property  seems  as  iniquitous  as  private  property.  To 
an  ordinary  mind,  there  seems  as  little  justification  for 
asking  the  individual  who  holds  large  shares  of  col- 
lective capital  to  give  it  up,  as  there  would  be  to  ask 
the  American  nation  to  move  off  and  give  up  the  land 
to  the  aborigines  who  were  certainly  rather  forcibly 
dispossessed  of  it. 

Integral  Socialists  are  possibly  uncertain  themselves 
regarding  the  soundness  of  their  purely  "  just ''  claims. 


340       MODERN  PRENCH  SOCIALISM, 

for  they  are  at  even  greater  pains  to  show  that,  just  or 
unjust,  as  a  mere  question  of  better  production  of 
wealth,  it  is  at  present  best  for  the  community  to  hold 
all  production  property.  The  various  arguments^*^  that 
are  brought  forward  to  show  how  much  more  effective 
social  production  would  be  under  this  form  of  land- 
holding,  all  aim  to  demonstrate  that  this  method  of  con- 
ducting production  would  not  impair  the  quality  and 
usefulness  of  the  individual  initiative  whose  influence 
on  the  final  results  of  industrial  activity  is  not  denied. 
Men  are  supposed  to  have  sufficient  spur  to  self-inter- 
ested activity  when  they  can  foresee  as  they  are  said 
to  be  able  to  foresee  under  the  system  proposed,  that  the 
uct,  and  so  the  greater  the  sum  of  pleasures  which  will 
larger  their  personal  effort,  the  greater  will  be  the  prod- 
result  for  each  member  of  society.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  is  believed  that  no  diminution  in  product  will  really 
result  from  a  possibly  diminished  interest  in  gain, 
whether  that  interest  has  been  an  egotistic  or  an  altru- 
istic one.  If  it  has  been  the  egotist  who  has  made 
money,  it  has  also  been  the  egotist  who  has  wasted  that 
which  he  has  never  made.  Under  the  land  tenure  pro- 
posed, it  is  expected  that  the  equilibrium  will  be  re- 
stored by  making  both  kinds  of  persons  work.  Or, 
again,  if  men  have  labored  for  their  children,  those 
children,  benefited  thus  beyond  their  deserts  or  their 
higher  real  need,  have  not  been  as  helpftil  to  the  com- 
munity as  they  would  be  under  a  social  arrangement 
that  would  equip  them  for  a  life-work  and  then  make 
them  masters  of  their  own  fate.  Thus  again,  an  equi- 
librium would  be  established;  if  the  parent's  labor  be 
67  Compare  Renard,  op.  cit.,  pp.  406-409. 


PROBLEM   OF  PROPERTY.  341 

diminished,  that  of  the  child  will  perforce  increase,  and 
each  will  really  be  benefited.  "  The  social  evil  comes 
above  all  from  the  hereditary  transmission  of  unlimited 
property,  a  result  which  the  triumph  of  individualism 
produces  and  perpetrates,"^  and  the  benefits  which  will 
accrue  from  the  abolition  of  private  bequests  are 
thought  to  be  tenfold  greater  than  those  which  the  in- 
dividual or  society  now  gains  from  the  perpetuation  of 
the  custom  in  any  of  its  forms. 

It  is  not  only  the  Integral  Socialist  who  has  recog- 
nized the  evils  of  unrestrained  accumulation  of  produc- 
tive property,  and  the  contention  that  a  certain  social 
interference  with  the  right  of  bequest  is  beneficial  and 
necessary,  has  not  waited  until  now  for  recognition. 
But  there  is  a  great  distinction  between  the  gradual 
checking  of  an  unwarranted  accumulation  of  wealth, 
with  the  power  for  good  or  ill  that  it  brings,  and  the 
immediate  and  entire  concentration  of  all  productive 
property  in  the  hands  of  society.  Even  granting  the 
highly  improbable  supposition  that  the  individual  can 
escape  the  baneful  results  of  the  administrative  awk- 
wardness and  political  corruption  which  almost  of  ne- 
cessity are,  one  or  both,  attendant  upon  a  democratic 
government,  there  remains  to  be  considered,  as  against 
the  benefits  detailed,  the  probable  check  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  which  would  come  of  necessity, 
when  all  social  service  was  consciously  turned  ove?  to 
the  state.  A  consciousness  of  social  efficiency,  a 
knowledge  of  the  duty  of  actually  working  for  others, 

esAlaville.  De  la  liberty  individuelle  par  le  collectivisme. 
R^yue  Socialiste,  Tome  26,  p.  442, 


342       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM, 

has  also  a  determining  part  in  shaping  the  final  results 
of  a  nation's  industry.  The  sort  of  individual  initia- 
tive which  might  remain  effective  even  when  the  stimu- 
lant to  the  satisfaction  of  the  animal  wants  was  re- 
moved, is  not  the  only  kind  of  initiative  that  counts, 
even  in  the  purely  economic  sense.  Economists  as 
well  as  others,  recognize  that  the  greed  for  wealth  is 
not  in  itself  the  only  impulse  to  an  effective  share  in 
production,  and  so,  even  granting  that  the  primitive 
spur  to  action  be  left  unimpaired  or  counterbalanced,  the 
social  benefits  of  common  holding  do  not  seem  entirely 
proven.  To  abruptly  and  entirely  separate  the  individ- 
ual from  all  productive  property  and  to  give  to  society 
a  scarcely  limited  responsibility  for  the  material  well- 
being  of  the  nation,  would  be  to  destroy  the  individual's 
sense  of  personal  responsibility,  to  check  too  suddenly 
the  spur  to  that  development  of  his  sympathetic  impulses 
which  results  from  a  voluntary  service  rendered  to  soci- 
ety, or  a  part  of  society.  Without  this  means  to  highest 
culture,  men  are  cut  away  from  the  chief  source  of  in- 
dividual benevolence  and  self-sacrifice,  and  such  an  ar- 
rangement would  menace  the  social  well-being  in  a  way 
that  would  probably  diminish  even  the  social  product. 
All  past  experiment  in  common  land-holding  suggests 
an  effect  upon  human  nature  which  is  anything  but 
"beneficial,"  whether  the  term  have  reference  to  the 
ethical  or  economic  character  of  the  community.  If 
in  that  past,  such  social  arrangements  have  ended  in 
stunting  character,  there  seems  much  reason  for  weigh- 
ing carefully  before  adopting  such  a  form  of  land  ten- 
ure in  the  future.     There  is  no  intention  to  deny  that 


SUPPLY  AND  DEMAND.  343 

with  the  progress  of  the  race,  a  wider  social  control  of 
property  may  not  come  about  as  a  higher  expression  of 
the  property  idea;  the  objection  is  rather  to  an  arbitrary 
and  wholesale  arrangement  of  all  contemporary  society 
under  any  such  system.  To  make  social  control  of  pro- 
ductive property  the  means  to  individual  development 
seems  unjustifiable;  to  count  it  as  a  possible  property- 
form  which  shall  develop  as  the  ultimate  result  of  an  al- 
tered and  elevated  type  of  the  individual  and  society,  is 
undertaking  a  work  of  forecasting  that  is  outside  the 
province  of  the  sociologist,  and  need  not  therefore  be 
debated.  It  can  fairly  be  asserted  that  this  plan  for 
the  summary  appropriation  of  all  productive  property 
by  the  state,  with  the  expectation  of  thus  establishing 
a  better  means  for  the  development  of  the  individuals 
of  the  community,  seems  a  plan  which,  in  view  of  the 
existing  facts  regarding  the  psychological  development 
of  the  peoples. of  the  earth,  would  be  directly  contrary 
to  the  very  ends  it  has  in  view. 

Those  who  aim  at  a  new  social  regime,  to  be 
brought  about  as  soon  as  possible,  are  so  certain  that  the 
state  functioning  as  a  controlling  influence  in  the  eco- 
nomic domain  will  be  of  the  greatest  immediate  benefit, 
that  the  most  desirable  method  of  exercising  that  office 
is  outlined  with  some  detail  and  much  hopefulness.  On 
the  question  of  property,  it  has  been  seen  that  there  is 
a  real  inconsistency  in  the  plans  of  the  socialists.  The 
failing  continues  throughout  the  system. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  new  social  regime  beside 
asking  as  a  general  principle  for  the  collective  holding 
of  productive  property,  would  ask  also  for  a  universal 


344       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

obligation  to  labor.^  We  are  not  informed  as  to 
whether  this  word  universal,  when  applied  here,  means, 
as  in  relation  to  suffrage,  a  universality  irrespective  of 
sex;  it  is  only  insisted  that  it  is  just  and  beneficial  that 
each  adult  member  of  the  community  give  a  share  of 
labor  toward  the  satisfaction  of  his  own  and  the  whole 
Social  Demand.  This  obligation  to  labor  is  not  con- 
ceded to  be  in  any  way  a  menace  to  the  independent 
action  of  each  individual.  Individual  freedom,  it  is 
contended,  is  no  more  threatened  by  an  obligatory  labor 
service  than  it  is  by  jury  duty  or  military  duty,  and  the 
duty  of  labor  has  beside,  it  is  argued,  this  advantage  of 
a  direct  personal  return  and  a  larger  satisfaction  of  per- 
sonal tastes,  since  each  man  is  to  be  free  to  follow  his 
own  inclination.  The  socialistic  phrases  of  the  past  are 
not  wanting.  We  are  told  that  when  idlers  and  para- 
sites, whether  rich  or  poor,  shall  be  forced  to  work, 
there  will  be  an  increased  product,  a  more  equal  effort, 
and  a  larger  enjoyment  for  the  greatest  number.  There 
is  so  little  that  is  new  in  this  idea  of  imposing  a  duty 
of  labor  upon  every  member  of  society  and  the  weak- 
nesses of  the  principle  have  so  often  been  pointed  out, 
that  it  would  need  only  a  passing  mention  did  it  not 
underlie  a  somewhat  novel  plan  for  carrying  on  the 
work  of  production.  The  whole  aim  of  the  regime 
proposed,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  is  a  better  develop- 
ment of  the  individual,  and  therefore  the  desire  for 
changes  in  present  industrial  relations.  To  give  the 
outlines  of  the  plan  will  be  enough  to  suggest  how  little 

69Comp.  Renard,  op.  cit.,  p.  401,  Tome  26^  Revue  Socialiste; 
also  pp.  664  et  se(j. 


^UPPLf  Ai^D  DEMAND.  345 

the  changes  desired  seem  really  calculated  to  accom- 
plish what  is  intended.  In  brief,  the  scheme  for  fur- 
thering a  larger  individual  development  is  as  follows 'J^ 
The  nation,  for  purposes  of  production  and  distribu- 
tion, is  to  be  suffered  to  divide  itself  according  to  per- 
sonal inclination,  into  three  economic  groups,  corporate 
groups,  semi-corporate  and  semi-administrative  groups, 
and  finally,  a  Bureau  of  Statistics.  By  corporate 
groups  are  really  meant  a  series  of  trades-unions,  which 
shall  organize  autonomously,  except  where  their  inter- 
ests touch  those  of  all  society;  the  semi-corporative, 
semi-administrative  groups  are  to  be  made  up  of  per- 
sons who  are  to  carry  out  the  public  will.  As  has  been 
already  noted,  these  public  functionaries  are  to  be 
chosen  first  by  competitive  examination  and  then  by 
general  election  from  the  list  of  those  who  have  success- 
fully passed  such  examination.  The  members  of  the 
Bureau  of  Statistics  receive  office  in  the  same  way.  The 
duty  of  this  bureau  is  to  collect  all  necessary  data  from 
the  records  of  the  various  trades  and  to  be  able  to  ren- 
der to  the  nation  an  annual  account  of  the  social  reve- 
nue; to  control  the  allotment  of  tasks  and  to  determine 
from  the  whole  product  the  personal  revenue  of  each 
workman.  Passing  over  the  numerous  objections  that 
might  occur  to  any  practical  mind,  the  doubt  as  to  the 
likelihood  that  the  unions  could  organize  automatically 
or  as  to  the  particular  permanent  value  of  the  proposed 
method  of  choosing  public  functionaries,  the  question 
arises  as  to  how  the  equilibrium  in  the  various  trades 
is  to  be  preserved. 

70  This  plan  for  the  organization  of  production  will  be  found 
in  Renard,  op.  eit.,  pp.  648-666. 


346       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

Those  who  advocate  this  plan  of  economic  organiza- 
tion meet  fairly  the  argument  that  under  the  entire 
freedom  in  the  choice  of  kind  of  labor  implied  by  the 
scheme,  tastes  might  drift  predominatingly  in  one  di- 
rection, and  certain  trades  be  entirely  neglectedJ^  It 
is  conceded  that  there  is  a  variation  in  the  agreeable- 
ness  and  intensity  of  all  labor  such  that,  if  no  arrange- 
ment to  the  contrary  is  made,  certain  trades  would  be 
over-filled  and  others  left  empty.  To  offset  this  and  to  ar- 
range for  a  certain  automatic  equilibrium  in  the  supply 
of  each  trade  on  lines  which  recognize  individual  initia- 
tive, it  is  to  be  provided  that  in  each  occupation  the 
amount  of  work  to  be  done  shall  be  divided  by  the  num- 
ber of  workers  applying,  and  the  quotient  thus  obtained 
shall  be  used  as  a  coefficient  to  modify  the  normal  labor- 
time  of  each  laborer.  It  is  then  believed  that  since,  in 
much  sought-after  trades,  there  will  be  less  work  per 
capita  and  the  remuneration  therefore  less,  young  per- 
sons entering  the  labor  field,  naturally  apt  to  want  high 
returns,  will  be  likely  to  enter  the  less  crowded  pro- 
fessions. Continued  progress  in  mechanical  appliances, 
coupled  with  the  higher  education  of  the  workman, 
will,  it  is  thought,  make  for  the  greatest  possible  mo- 
bility of  labor,  so  that,  if  changes  of  profession  be 
necessary,  such  changes  will  bring  no  misery,  as  they 
do  to-day.  In  the  liberal  professions,  whenever  it  be- 
comes necessary  to  equilibrate  the  supply  and  de- 
mand, it  will  only  be  requisite  to  raise  the  standard 
of  requirements.  As  to  certain  trades  whose  offices 
no  one  might  wish  to  perform,  these,  it  is  suggested, 

TiRenard,  op.  cit.,  pp.  10-16  (in  Revue  Socialiste,  Tome 
27). 


I 


SUPPLY  AND  DEMAND.  347 

could  perhaps  be  made  attractive  by  special  re- 
muneration which  would  tempt  offers  of  service,  or 
else  regulations  similar  to  those  which  now  enforce 
military  or  jury  duty  could  arrange  that  such  tasks 
be  equitably  distributed^^  With  the  exception  of  the 
last  provision,  which  hardly  meets  the  general  in- 
tention of  an  increased  independence  of  choice,  the  dif- 
ferent types  of  labor,  the  variety  of  service  necessary  to 
supply  a  social  demand  seem  somewhat  ingeniously  ar- 
ranged for.  But  after  all,  equilibrating  the  labor  sup- 
ply is  a  secondary  consideration.  In  an  economic  or- 
ganization which  aims  at  the  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual by  way  of  the  greatest  possible  liberty,  the  vital 
economic  question  is  the  manner  in  which  the  individ- 
ual's wants  are  to  be  satisfied.  It  is  then  this  part  of 
the  Integral  scheme  which  it  is  of  first  interest  to  un- 
derstand. 

The  method  suggested  is  of  the  simplest."^^  The  Sta- 
tistical Bureau,  as  has  been  noted,  is  to  collect  all  nec- 
essary figures  for  the  calculation  of  the  individual  and 
social  need.  In  this  regard,  its  work  is  to  consist  in 
making  up  a  budget  of  the  labor  that  must  be  done  in 
order  to  satisfy  all  real  wants.  It  is  not,  however,  the 
Statistical  Bureau  that  determines  the  "  Social  De- 
sires." It  is  the  whole  society,  acting  on  information 
furnished  by  the  Statistical  Bureau,  that  will  settle 
what  social  needs  shall  be  satisfied  by  the  Social  Labor. 

72  What  a  store  of  altruism  one  must  have  ready  when  sum- 
moned to  take  one's  turn  at  carting  the  city  refuse,  or  serv- 
ing as  a  stoker! 

73  The  plan  is  given  in  full  in  Renard,  op.  cit.,  pp.  669-678  j 
also  pp.  13-16,  Tome  27,  Revue  Socialiste. 


348       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

Starting  with  the  classification  of  wants  as  relative 
and  absolute  wants,  both  as  regards  the  individual  and 
the  social  want,  reckoning  absolute  wants  of  the  indi- 
vidual as  food,  clothing,  certain  furnishings  and  heat- 
ing; and  social  necessities  as  those  means  required  for 
maintaining  public  service,  those  required  to  maintain 
the  social  capital,  and  certain  additional  moneys  neces- 
sary for  national  exchange,  the  sum  of  these  personal 
and  social  wants  is  said  to  be  that  whole  Social  Desire 
which  it  is  imperative  to  supply  annually.  The  theo- 
rist who  advances  this  view  of  needs,  seems  oblivious  to 
the  fact  that  either  the  individual  or  the  social  wants 
as  stated  are  capable  of  extension  in  each  category 
named,  until  they  cover  pretty  well  everything  called 
luxuries,  and  that,  therefore,  in  restricting  the  classifi- 
cation of  wants  after  this  fashion,  nothing  very  real 
has  been  said.  The  supposition,  on  the  contrary,  seems 
to  be  that  the  problem  of  necessary  wants  has  been  set- 
tled. These  absolute  wants  of  society  and  the  individ- 
ual, a  sum  of  social  labor  must  annually  supply.  All 
additional  wants  are  to  be  supplied  at  the  will  of  the 
collectivity,  which  shall  vote  an  increase  in  the  scale  of 
wants  as  fast  as  it  desires,  possibly,  Kenard  suggests,  by 
formulating  a  "New  Declaration  of  the  Political  and 
Economic  Eights  of  Man  and  of  the  Citizen.^^'''^ 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  point  in  this  social  sys- 
tem, which  sets  out  to  arrange  for  a  larger  individual 
freedom,  enjoyment  and  development  for  each  member 
of  society  is  the  fact  that  it  creates  a  regulated  Social 
Desire.     To  regulate  by  a  majority  vote  the  satisfaction 

74  Comp.  Renard,  op.  cit.,  p.  21,  Revue  Socialiste,  Tome  27. 


SUPPLY  AND  DEMAND.  349 

of  the  social,  and  thus  of  the  individual  desire,  seems 
curiously  at  odds  with  any  justified  expectation  of  an 
individual  development  by  way  of  complete  individual 
freedom.  This  new  regime  intends  that  each  individual 
must  wait  upon  the  pleasure  of  the  community  before 
he  can  be  supplied  with  much  beyond  the  necessaries 
of  life.  According  to  their  own  theory,  the  quality 
and  strength  of  men's  lives  are  said  to  wait  upon  the 
quality  and  quantity  of  the  supply  of  commodities,  and 
the  way  in  which  these  commodities  are  distributed. 
Yet  under  the  plan  proposed,  the  individual  will  be 
able  to  satisfy  these  higher  needs  only  as  fast  as  the 
majority  voice  of  the  community  shall  permit.  The  im- 
mediate satisfaction  of  the  real  wants  of  the  greatest 
number  may  perhaps  be  expected  from  such  an  arrange- 
ment, but  the  integral  development  of  each  and  all 
seems  doubtful.  Thus  without  actively  opposing  in- 
tellectual superiority,  even  though  aiming  to  encourage 
it,  this  plan  of  social  organization  seems  certain  to  mili- 
tate against  it  both  because  of  the  leveling  probabilities 
just  suggested,  and  for  another  reason.  A  daily  quota 
of  effort  is  to  be  exacted  from  each  member  of  the  col- 
lectivity ;  but  if  machines  are  certain  to  be  provided,  and 
the  laws  of  the  industrial  organization  arrange  that  each 
one  knows  for  a  certainty  that  a  place  will  be  found 
for  him,  it  seems  more  than  probable  that  all  this  will 
of  necessity  reduce  to  zero  what  little  intellectual  ef- 
fort is  now  necessary  to  carry  on  mechanical  production. 
The  lot  of  most  persons  must  be  the  mere  tending  of 
a  machine,  and  that  lot  has  little  to  be  said  for  it  as  a 
means  to  intellectual  development.     The  road  to  intel- 


350       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

lectual  growth  seems  always  to  have  been  by  way  of  the 
stimulus  that  comes  from  necessity  for  struggle.  Re- 
move this  impetus  to  effort  and  there  seems  every  likeli- 
hood that  a  serious  impediment  would  arise  to  that 
very  integral  development  which  Integral  Socialism  is 
so  eager  to  maintain  as  the  prime  end  of  all  social  or- 
ganization. This  fact  has  not  seemed  to  strike  Integral 
socialists  at  all,  and  this  because  what  they  have  in  real- 
ity at  heart  is  not  the  individual's  interest,-  but  rather 
the  interests  of  the  greatest  number.  Although  claim- 
ing so  much  for  the  individual,  it  is  really  social  justice 
that  Integral  socialistic  theory  seeks  to  establish.  The 
disharmony  between  a  conception  of  social  justice  which 
would  control  even  the  play  of  personal  tastes,  and  any 
real  integral  development  of  the  individual,  seems  ob- 
vious. Nothing  that  either  past  or  present  can  show 
suggests  that  the  idea  of  social  justice  means  much  more 
than  the  liberty  of  the  greatest  number  to  force  their 
will  upon  the  minority,  and  nothing  in  the  past  or  pres- 
ent seems  to  warrant  the  expectation  that  the  individual 
or  society  can  develop  unless  society  leave  to  the  indi- 
vidual the  spur  of  some  strong  personal  incentive  to 
effort,  unless  it  leaves  to  him  the  sense  of  a  personal 
responsibility  for  his  own  and  the  community's  well- 
being.  It  is  precisely  this  vital  force  to  progress  that 
the  plan  of  the  Integral  socialist  seems  seriously  to 
menace. 

This  scheme  for  the  "integral  development  of  the 
individual "  has  a  final  argument  to  be  noted.  It  aims 
to  make  the  labor  hour  the  unit  of  value  both  for  dis- 
tribution of  product  and  as  a  medium  of  exchange. 


SUPPLY  AND  DEMAND.  35I 

The  method  by  which  to  determine  the  share  of  the 
Social  Product  belonging  to  each  individual  is  of  the 
simplest.  The  general  formula  for  distribution  runs 
"  to  each  according  to  his  labor ;  to  each  according  to 
his  needs.""^^  The  whole  number  of  hours  required  to 
satisfy  the  social  desire  having  been  divided  by  the 
number  of  laborers  offering  themselves,  the  average 
number  of  hours  required  of  each  laborer  will  be  deter- 
mined. Since  the  average  Labor  Hour  is  regarded  as 
the  unit  of  value/^  the  average  number  of  hours  required 
of  each  laborer  can  be  used  both  as  the  determinant  of 
the  share  of  labor  he  owes  to  the  collectivity  and  as  the 
measure  of  his  share  of  the  reward.  To  apportion  the 
separate  shares  in  the  whole  product,  the  Statistical 
Bureau  has  only  to  go  through  a  simple  process  of  addi- 
tion and  subtraction.  After  the  whole  product  is  gath- 
ered together,  in  order  to  give  to  each  laborer  the  just 
share  of  the  return  which  is  the  whole  aim  of  the 
economic  part  of  the  system,  calculation  is  to  be  made 
of  the  social  revenue  in  agriculture  and  manufactures. 
From  this  total  the  dividends  of  each  person  can  be 
computed.  Before  calculating  the  dividends  of  the  in- 
dividual, a  subtraction  is  to  be  made  of  (1)  a  quantity 
of  product  to  belong  to  the  nation  and  to  be  set  aside 
in  case  of  drought,  famine,  etc.;  (2)  a  certain  quantity 
of  product  to  be  reserved  for  international  exchange; 
(3)  a  certain  amount  of  product  to  be  devoted  to  the 
support  of  persons  unable  to  work,  to  the  maintenance 
of  children  and  of  persons  whose  labors  produce  no 

75  Comp.  the  formulae  of  Saint  Simon  and  Blanc. 

76  See  infra,  p.  357. 


,352       MODERN  FRENCH  SOCIALISM. 

measurable  result  J^  Such  deduction  made,  it  will  only 
be  necessary  to  divide  the  remaining  sum  of  products 
by  the  sums  of  hours  which  was  required  to  produce 
them,  and  the  average  dividend  of  each  individual  will 
be  foundJ® 

As  to  the  question  of  the  manner  of  exchanging  the 
product  which  shall  have  been  created  by  the  collectiv- 
ity, M.  Eenard  passes  it  over  lightly,  as  a  question  so 
relative  that  it  may  largely  be  left  to  the  future.  It  is, 
however,  held  to  be  probable  that  exchange  will  be  ef- 
fected by  means  of  social  shares  corresponding  to  the 
number  of  the  shares  apportioned  to  each  laborer. 
These  shares,  non-transferable  and  good  for  a  lifetime 
only,  will  serve  as  the  money  necessary  to  purchase  that 
which  the  individual  may  desire.  Such  commodities 
as  he  may  wish  for  will  be  found  in  large  national  and 
communal  storehouses,  like  the  department  store  of  the 
present  day. 

As  must  be  evident,  the  whole  claim  for  the  equity 
of  this  plan  of  distribution,  according  to  labor  time, 
rests  upon  the  theory  that  Labor  is  Value.  It  is,  of 
course,  the  Labor  Value  theory  which  the  Integral  So- 
cialists, as  well  as  the  Marxists,  advance,  but  the  argu- 
ment is  not  quite  the  same  as  that  of  the  Scientific 

77  OflBeials,  artists,  scientists  and  the  like  are  thus  to  be 
under  public  protection.     Compare  Renard,  op.  cit.,  p.  670. 

78Renard,  op.  cit.,  p.  660.  M.  Renard  is  careful  to  antici- 
pate any  criticism  that  might  arise  concerning  the  probable 
small  share  which  such  a  progress  of  distribution  would  give 
to  each  member  of  society.  He  points  out  with  some  elabora- 
tion that  the  personal  revenue  of  each  member  of  the  col- 
lectivity will  be  of  two  kinds :  ( 1 )  a  sum  of  collective  enjoy- 
ments furnished  by  the  collectivity;  (2)  a  sum  of  personal 
enjoyment,  the  result  of  his  own  efforts,  and  that,  therefore, 
the  second  category  need  not  represent  a  very  large  amount. 


THEORY  OF  VALUE.  353 

Socialist.'^^  In  the  argument  of  the  school  under  dis- 
cussion, utility  is  not  excluded  from  value,  when  value 
as  the  result  of  a  personal  transaction  is  in  question. 
It  is  admitted  that  to  have  value  a  thing  must  satisfy 
a  desire,  that  is,  it  must  have  utility  as  well  as  be  the 
result  of  a  certain  amount  of  labor.  Value  is  said  to 
be  "the  relation  between  two  variable  quantities,  the 
intensity  of  desire  and  the  sum  of  labor  necessary  to 
satisfy  it."^  Value  always  functions  as  need  of  the 
consumer,  and  as  labor  of  the  producer.  In  a  word, 
Integral  socialism  reasons  soundly  enough  and  recog- 
nizes that  value  in  an  exchange  between  persons  is  a 
fact  of  distribution  rather  than  one  of  production. 
However,  the  school  makes  a  sharp  distinction  between 
value  in  a  bargain  between  two  persons  and  the  value 
of  an  article  produced  and  marketed  by  associated 
workers.  The  measure  in  society,  it  is  said,  cannot  be 
furnished  by  the  individual  taste.  The  value  of  a  com- 
modity in  society  is  claimed  to  be  the  "  Social  average 
which  results  from  the  different  valuations  and  condi- 
tions between  buyer  and  seller,  and  it  is  therefore  ar- 
gued that  to  measure  value,  it  must  first  be  socialized.^* 
When  this  has  been  done,  it  is  found  that  social  desire 
and  social  labor  continue  to  be  the  opposing  elements 
of  value.  But  social  desire  will  be  a  constant,  because 
under  the  new  regime,  it  is  to  be  determined;  it  can 
thus  be  excluded  and  Social  Labor  will  be  left  as  the 
only  real  determinant  of  Social  value.     The  sum  of  so- 

79  Discussion  of   the  Value  theory  is   in  Renard,  op.  cit., 
pp.  1-16,  Revue  Socialiste,  Tome  27. 

80  Ibid,  p.  3. 

81  Ibid,  p.  5. 


354       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

cial  labor,  '^  valuable  according  to  the  progress  of  agri- 
culture and  of  industrial  appliances,  in  its  turn  makes 
value  vary,  and  so  permits  that  value  to  be  measured." 
Intensity  of  labor  being  only  indirectly  measurable,  it 
is  not  held  to  be  a  reliable  basis  for  measurement,  and 
60  the  other  element  of  labor,  the  time,  is  taken  as  a 
measure  of  value.  Thus  the  method  to  be  followed  by 
the  Statistical  Bureau  of  totalizing  the  number  of 
hours  required  to  produce  a  given  quantity  of  similar 
things  and  dividing  this  number  of  things  produced, 
will,  it  is  said,  give  a  quotient  which  is  the  equitable 
reward  accruing  to  each  laborer  who  has  had  a  share 
in  the  creation  of  the  values.  In  this  way,  it  is  claimed 
that  a  given  commodity  may  equitably  be  said  to  be 
worth  so  many  hours  of  social  labor.  For  this  reason, 
the  average  labor  hour  is  the  unit  of  value,  and  all  dis- 
tribution and  exchange  will  take  place  on  the  basis  of 
such  a  unit  of  value. 

In  view  of  reasoning  just  set  down,  the  difference 
between  this  and  the  Marxian  argument  will  at  once  ap- 
pear. When  the  doctrine  of  labor  as  value  starts  from 
a  special  industrial  system,  arbitrarily  controlled  by 
the  collective  will,  the  reasoning  is  sound  enough.  It 
is  entirely  possible  under  a  controlled  demand  to  make 
value  a  fact  of  production,  and  the  value  of  an  article 
equal  to  its  cost  of  production.  Given  a  monopoly 
product  and  the  social  desire  annually  determined  by 
the  authorities  and  the  rest  might  easily  follow.  It  is 
difficult  to  follow  the  intricacies  of  calculation  neces- 
sary for  estimating  justly  the  whole  social  labor  in- 
volved in  production.    All  the  social  forces  cooperating 


THEORY  OF  VALVE.  355 

to  a  given  product,  those  indirect  agents  for  the  secur- 
ity that  permits  production,  as  well  as  the  direct  and 
multiform  industrial  factors,  ought  in  justice  to  be  sev- 
erally reckoned,  yet  it  seems  doubtful  if  in  the  new 
regime  they  could  or  would  be  taken  into  account. 
There  seems  a  further  and  evident  injustice  both  to 
the  individual  and  to  society  in  neglecting  to  consider 
the  difference  in  intensity  and  quality  of  labor.  The 
plan  seems  then  full  of  pitfalls  for  him  who,  like  the 
Integral  socialists,  aims  first  of  all  at  entire  justice;  but 
if  this  consideration  be  set  aside,  there  is  nothing  to 
prevent  value  becoming,  under  the  system  proposed,  a 
fact  of  production  and  being  measured  by  the  Social 
labor  time,  where  this  latter  means  the  social  cost  of 
production. 

With  regard  to  the  Integral  School  then,  the  ques- 
tion does  not  turn  upon  the  validity  of  their  theory  of 
value,  which,  be  it  noted  in  passing,  is  not  used  here 
in  the  way  the  Marxists  use  it,  as  a  means  to  stir  rancor, 
but  only  as  a  justification  for  the  new  scheme  of  distri- 
bution. Instead  of  discussing  their  theory  of  value,  a 
theory  which  could  only  hold  good  if  a  different  kind  of 
economic  ©rganization  were  established,  it  is  rather  of 
interest  to  discuss  the  advisability  and  consistency  of 
the  whole  system.  Such  a  system  as  has  been  seen,  asks 
for  two  noteworthy  and  arbitrary  alterations  in  accepted 
social  arrangements,  the  collective  control  of  land  and 
other  means  of  production  and  a  regulated  social  desire. 
It  has  been  sufficiently  pointed  out  how  contrary  these 
plans  seem  to  the  end  in  view.  This  scheme  for  dis- 
tribution which  rests  upon  absolute  democracy,  which 


356  MODEkN  FREt^CB  SOCIALISM. 

deprives  the  individual  of  a  deciding  voice  in  the  supply 
of  his  economic  wants,  which  makes  a  given  quota  of 
labor  obligatory  and  neglects  in  that  labor  its  quality 
to  give  precedence  to  its  mere  quantity,  seems  one 
which  at  every  point  menaces  the  stimulus  to  individual 
capacity  which  is  so  inseparable  from  any  real  progress, 
individual  or  social.  Every  one  of  the  important  propo- 
sitions of  the  scheme  would  seem  to  obstruct  seriously 
that  which  the  leading  principle  of  the  plan  aims  to 
preserve,  protect  and  foster  most  carefully.  It  is  hardly 
disputable  that  a  democratic  industrial  organization 
such  as  the  one  planned  by  the  Integral  socialists  would 
at  best  threaten  each  man  with  a  slavery  to  society 
greater  than  ever,  a  slavery  both  in  his  political  service 
and  his  personal  needs,  and  would  be  more  than  likely 
to  do  away  with  a  fruitful  source  of  that  inventiveness 
and  individual  energy  which  all  thinkers  agree  are  at 
the  root  of  the  growth  of  society.  As  time  works 
its  mysterious  changes,  it  may  be  that  the  essential  qual- 
ity of  such  changes  will  bring  a  greater  social  control 
over  certain  departments  of  individual  life.  After  each 
member  of  society  has,  up  to  the  point  where  it  be- 
comes instinct,  slowly  learned  the  lesson  of  his  direct 
responsibility  for  the  social  institutions  under  which  he 
lives,  just  as  he  now  knows  instinctively  his  responsi- 
bility for  the  best  possible  individual  and  domestic 
well-being,  he  may  be  able  to  act  oftener  on  a  collective 
rather  than  a  purely  personal  initiative.  Men  may 
slowly  come  to  work  as  instinctively  for  a  sound  social 
life,  as  they  now  do  for  the  best  preservation  of  them- 
selves and  their  families,  but  scarce  the  first  pages  of 


SUMMARY  OF  INTEGRAL   SOCIALISM.  357 

the  lesson  have  as  yet  been  learned.  Perhaps  through 
the  stumbling  and  mistakes  attendant  upon  experiment 
in  institutions,  the  new  type  of  individual  is  to  be  de- 
veloped; but  it  seems  eminently  desirable  that  the  ex- 
periment shall  not,  for  a  long  time,  at  any  rate,  be  in 
the  direction'  toward  which  Integral  socialism  would 
lead. 

III. 

In  this  study  of  the  principles  of  modern  French 
Socialism,  it  remains  to  sum  up  briefly  the  general  char- 
acter of  that  doctrine. 

When  all  is  said  the  chief  differences  between  the  in- 
dependent school  and  the  Marxists  is  a  philosophical 
one,  but  that  difference  is  so  fundamental  to  all  others 
that  it  gives  an  altered  tone  to  the  whole  doctrine.  In- 
dependent Socialists  have  adopted  a  strong  and  admir- 
able theory  of  social  progress.  They  express  as  nearly 
as  we  know  them,  what  seem  to  be  fundamental  truths 
concerning  the  relation  of  man  to  man  and  man  to  so- 
ciety. They  do  not  deny  that  man  is  "  master  of  his 
fate ;  '^  they  would  only  show  his  extreme  dependence 
upon  society  for  his  development  and  mental  force. 
They  do  not  reduce  all  aims  to  those  that  end  in  self, 
nor  do  they  make  a  bitter  class  struggle  the  sole  means 
to  progress.  Theirs  is  a  socialism  which  seeks  to  in- 
crease cooperation  and  community  of  interests,  sym- 
pathy and  growth  of  the  individual  by  sympathy.  Their 
schemes  for  social  reform  aim  to  give  to  both  the  hand 
and  the  brain  of  every  member  of  the  community  a 
noble  and  fitting  work,  and  to  both  a  larger  share  than 
heretofore  in  the  wealth  they  must  together  create. 


358       MODERN  FRENCH   SOCIALISM. 

It  would  be  to  decry  the  best  teachings  of  our  day 
to  criticise  the  Independent  Socialist  in  his  doctrine 
of  social  progress,  but  it  would  be  a  fundamental  mis- 
take to  say  that  because  his  primary  principles  are 
sound,  his  whole  doctrine  is  therefore  valid.  The 
school  fails  when  it  seeks  to  apply  its  principles,  when 
it  tries  to  cope  with  reality.  When  it  would  probe  too 
far  into  the  future,  and  would  demonstrate  what  a  just 
and  beneficial  regime  should  be,  it  falk  short,  as  has 
been  sufficiently  shown. 

In  summary,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  after  all 
it  is  only  on  this  doctrine  of  progress  that  the  two 
schools  separate.  Both  schools  stand  clearly  for  the 
idea  of  progress,  differing  only  as  to  whether  such  prog- 
ress is  the  result  of  physiological  or  psychological 
causes.  Both  stand  without  separation  of  doctrine  for 
individual  rights,  for  decentralized  and  unqualified 
democracy,  and  for  that  interpretation  of  economic 
freedom  which  holds  it  necessary  that  each  individual  be 
socially  controlled  in  his  industrial  activity  exactly  as 
he  must,  for  the  general  well-being,  be  checked  in  the 
entire  exercise  of  his  civil  and  political  liberty.  These 
then  are  the  fundamental  principles  of  modern  French 
Socialism. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  FOR  CHAPTER  VL  359 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  FOR  CHAPTER  VI. 

Contemporary  French  Socialistic  Pamphlets  and  Books: 
Bertrand.  Qu'est  —  ce  que  le  Socialisme ;  La  Co-op§ration, 
Paris  editions,  1896.-^  Brissac.  Resume  populaire  du  Social- 
isme; Socialisme  Collectiviste;  Leurs  Arguments  Anti-collecti- 
vistes,  Paris  editions  (undated). —  Boulard.  Philosophie  et 
Pratique  du  Collectivisme  Integral  revolutionnaire,  ed.  Lib. 
Socialiste,  Paris,  1897. —  Deville.  Prineipes  Socialistes,  ed. 
Giard  et  Briere,  Paris,  1896. — Guesde.  Collectivisme  au  Col- 
lege de  France,  ed.  Derveaux,  Paris,  1886;  Collectivisme  au 
Palais  Bourbon,  ed.  Lille,  1894;  Probleme  et  Solution,  ed. 
Lille,  1894 ;  Double  reponse  a  MM.  de  Mun  et  Paul  Deschanel, 
Paris,  1896. —  Guesde  et  Lafargue. —  Program  du  Parti  Ouv- 
rier,  ed.  Lille,  1894. —  Jaures.  Patriotisme  et  International- 
isme,  ed.  Lille,  1895;  Socialisme  et  Paysan,  Paris,  1897. — 
Jaures  et  Lafargue.  Idealisme  et  materialisme  dans  la  concep- 
tion de  I'histoire,  ed.  Paris,  1895. —  Labriola.  Essais  sur  la 
conception  materialiste  de  I'histoire,  ed.  Giard  et  Bri&re,  Paris, 
1897. —  Lafargue.  Evolution  of  Property,  ed.  Swan,  Sonnen- 
schein,  London,  1890. —  Laveleye.  De  la  Proprigt§  et  ses 
formes  primitives,  Eng.  ed.,  Macmillan,  1878. — Maillard.  Au 
prol^taire  frangaise,  ed.  de  I'auteur,  Paris,  1894. —  Malon. 
Etudes  complies  de  Malon.  Derveaux,  Paris,  1883;  Pr§cis  de 
socialisme,  ed.  F^lix  Alcan,  Paris,  1892. — Renard.  Le  Regime 
Socialiste  (in  Revue  Socialiste,  Tomes  26  and  27,  1898)  ;  Let- 
tres  socialistes,  Giard  et  Briere,  Paris,  1897. — "La  Petite  RS- 
puhlique"  (the  official  organ  of  the  socialistic  party). — "La 
Revue  Socialiste"  (the  monthly  organ  of  the  Integral  group). 


PART  III. 

COMPARATIVE   REVIEW  OF  THE  TWO 
DOCTRINES. 


COMPARATIVE  REVIEW  OF  TWO  DOCTRINES. 
Comparison  of  the  Two  Theories. 

Two  sets  of  principles,  their  origin  and  general  char- 
acter, have  been  the  subject  of  this  study.  It  has  been 
explained  how  the  eighteenth-century  philosophy  and 
the  material  conditions  in  the  France  of  that  time,  de- 
veloped new  social  principles,  and  the  more  important 
of  those  principles  have  been  stated.  It  has  further  been 
shown  how  certain  conceptions  of  social  reform  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  taking  impulse  from  certain  radical 
alterations  in  social  conditions,  have  given  rise  to  a  mili- 
tant political  program  which  is  called  Socialism.  It  re- 
mains in  closing,  to  bring  the  two  doctrines  more  nearly 
together,  to  show  briefly  how  far  the  aims  and  the  social 
and  political  principles  of  each  are  similar  and  where 
they  diverge,  and  to  make  evident  whatever  is  additional 
in  the  later  doctrine. 

These  two  theories  which  have  grown  up  almost  one 
hundred  years  apart,  are  strikingly  alike  in  their  gen- 
eral character.  With  only  an  occasional  change  of 
terminology,  much  of  one  doctrine  is  almost  a  repetition 
of  the  other.  They  represent  two  strong  and  well-de- 
fined pleas  for  the  right  of  happiness,  for  association  as 
the  general  means  to  that  happiness,  and  pure  democ- 
racy as  the  specific  means.  They  differ  scarcely  at  all 
in  their  aim  or  their  political  theory;  it  is  their  theory 
of  man  and  society  which  marks  them  as  separate  doc- 
trines. 


364  COMPARATIVE  REVIEW. 

Compare  first  the  idea  of  a  right  to  happiness.  Both 
theories  hold  that  there  is  such  a  right,  but  differ  as  to 
its  origin.  The  right  to  happiness  under  the  later  theory 
does  not  derive,  as  it  does  in  the  dominant  thinking  of 
the  Kevolution,  from  a  natural  right,  but  is  deduced 
from  a  conception  of  progress  that  makes  man's  develop- 
ment, for  which  read  increasing  power  of  enjoyment, 
the  condition  to  any  sound  social  evolution,  but  both 
theories  affirm  a  universal  right  to  happiness.  The 
whole  difference  between  them  lies  in  the  more  clearly- 
defined  notion  of  the  modern  theory  as  to  what  happi- 
ness is  and  whence  it  derives. 

As  has  been  seen,  modern  French  Socialism  seems 
to  have  adopted  the  revolutionary  idea  of  happiness 
with  a  greater  narrowing  of  the  content  of  the  word 
until  it  seems  to  start,  as  it  did  with  the  Physiocrats, 
from  the  possession  of  wealth.  It  is  the  dogma  of  mod- 
ern French  Socialism,  more  or  less  frankly  expressed, 
that  happiness  for  man  depends  upon  the  unchecked 
satisfaction  of  the  needs  of  his  physical  being,  and  the 
theory  attempts  to  show  that  all  the  higher  needs  of 
man  are  mere  increments  of  these  material  needs.  The 
whole  well-being,  and  so  the  contented  existence  of  any 
man,  is  held  to  be  unavoidably  dependent  upon  the 
material  conditions  which  surround  him.  Men  are  per- 
fected and  thus  made  happier,  as  their  opportunities  for 
the  enjoyment  of  the  products  of  economic  activity  in- 
crease. All  this,  it  will  be  remembered,  was,  in  less  set 
terms,  also  the  revolutionary  idea  of  happiness.  In  the 
modern  doctrine  the  idea  is  merely  more  unequivocally 
stated. 


Happiness,  by  way  of  completest  liberty  to  enjoy,  was 
the  demand  of  the  Eevolutionist  at  the  end  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  as  it  is  the  demand  of  the  socialist  at 
the  close  of  the  nineteenth.  But  the  later  doctrine 
makes  more  clear  the  entirely  materialistic  note  in  both. 
The  more  characteristic  French  Socialism,  Independent 
Socialism,  has  included  in  the  idea  of  individual  hap- 
piness, a  claim  that,  since  social  life  gives  abounding 
proof  of  the  complete  dependence  of  each  on  all,  no 
true  happiness  ought  to  include  the  consciousness  of  the 
unhappiness  of  others.  Therefore  this  socialism  asks 
that  each  man's  demand  for  happiness  shall  be  a  claim 
not  merely  personal,  but  universal.  The  idea  is  wider 
and  broader  than  that  which  the  particularism  of  the 
first  half  of  our  century  called  the  revolutionary  doc- 
trine, that  is,  the  dictum  that,  if  every  man  looked  after 
his  own  happiness,  it  would  follow  that  all  would  be 
happy.  A  need  have  no  concern  as  to  B's  happiness; 
he  had  only  to  see  to  it  that  he  and  his  were  provided 
for,  and  it  would  follow  that  if  each  was  happy,  all  would 
be  happy.  The  individual  right  being  respected,  the 
rest  was  to  be  left  to  the  citizen.  But  neither  the  Eevo- 
lution  nor  modern  French  Socialism  countenanced  this 
kind  of  individualism.  Both  were  individualistic,  if 
that  word  describes  one  who  believes  that  A  must  be 
free  to  secure  his  own  happiness,  but  both  urged  beside 
that  A  must  not  be  merely  content  to  be  happy  himself. 
What  the  Eevolution  called  fraternity  and  socialists 
call  solidarity,  was  to  be  the  check  upon  a  merely  self- 
regarding  idea  of  happiness.  On  the  other  hand, 
neither  socialism  nor  the  Revolutionary  principles 
countenanced  the  idea  that  A's  business  was  solely  to 


366  COMPARATIVE  REVIEW. 

look  after  B.  Both  concluded  that  A's  first  duty  is 
toward  himself,  but  he  must  realize,  and  the  accent  on 
this  point  is  heaviest  in  modern  socialism,  he  must  first 
realize  that,  if  he  would  get  the  highest  development 
of  which  he  is  capable,  he  must  aid  in  securing  the  hap- 
piness of  all. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  even  Marxism  asserts  that 
because  economic  conditions  have  bred  class  differences 
and  class  differences  have  bred  class  antagonisms,  there- 
fore the  individual,  in  order  to  save  his  own  skin,  must 
join  his  fellows  in  a  struggle  for  a  more  general  happi- 
ness. Marxism  lays,  bare  the  fact  that  the  whole  fight 
is  of  necessity  self -regarding ;  that  it  is  merely  a  spirit 
of  self-preservation  which,  impelling  men  to  strive  for 
the  best  they  can  get,  bids  them  unite  with  those  of 
similar  interests,  since  organized  effort  is  most  likely  to 
bring  the  desired  result.  Marxism,  then,  as  well  as 
Integral  Socialism,  affirms  a  universal  right  to  happi- 
ness, and,  except  that  it  makes  the  motive  more  coldly 
self-regarding,  it  teaches  the  value  of  association  in 
order  to  such  happiness,  just  as  the  Eevolutionary  prin- 
ciples or  Integral  Socialism  teaches  it. 

The  revolutionists,  in  spite  of  their  faith  in  frater- 
nity, had  not  quite  escaped  from  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury's dubious  attitude  toward  society;  they  were  often 
inclined  to  think  social  life  an  inevitable  but  doubtful 
situation;  the  socialist  unhesitatingly  acknowledges  it 
as  the  means,  and  the  only  means,  to  intellectual  life 
and  progress.  In  the  Eevolutionary  theorj^,  association 
was  most  often  held  to  originate  in  a  contract  deliber- 
ately undertaken  at  a  period  preceding  society  properly 
so-called,  a  period  that  had  succeeded  one  wherein  men 


POLITICAL  THEORIES.  367 

had  been  rather  happier  than  they  ever  could  be  in  the 
unrest  of  civilized  life.  The  theory  of  French  social- 
ists has  unanimously  adopted  the  biological  and  histori- 
cal theory  of  the  origin  of  society.  But  both  Revolution- 
ist and  Socialist  agree  that  society,  whether  a  necessary 
evil  or  a  great  good,  is  to-day  the  prerequisite  to  man's 
satisfactory  existence.  Both  agree,  in  fact,  that  the  vital 
conditions  to  an  association  which  shall  justify  itself 
in  the  happiness  of  its  members,  is  some  kind  of  social 
organization  to  be  governed  by  a  body  of  rules  which 
shall  maintain  for  the  feeble  the  opportunity  which  Na- 
ture unfairly  puts  into  the  hands  of  the  strong. 

Beside  asking  then  for  a  happiness  more  general  than 
that  they  see  about  them,  a  happiness  to  be  obtained 
by  a  greater  association,  or  as  the  phrases  severally  go 
by  a  greater  fraternity  or  solidarity,  both  doctrines  be- 
lieve that  the  greatest  possible  individual  freedom  is  an 
absolute  necessity  in  order  to  accomplish  this  end. 
Both  theories  posit  the  general  principle  of  democ- 
racy; both  hold  that  all  organized  power  should  rest 
on  the  active  participation  in  public  affairs  of  all  self- 
supporting,  law-abiding  persons.  Both  contend  that 
there  is  no  function  of  government  so  imperative  and 
important  as  that  of  establishing  law  to  insure  each  indi- 
vidual in  the  free  exercise  of  rights  which  give  him 
the  opportunity  to  develop.  These  propositions  are 
the  basis  on  which  the  remainder  of  the  political 
theory  rests.  It  will  be  remembered  how  nearly  the 
theories  concerning  the  structure  of  government  resem- 
ble each  other,  and  how  it  is  on  the  question  of  function 
of  government,  not  form  of  government,  that  they 
diverge. 


368  COMPARATIVE  REVIEW. 

In  both  theories,  the  right  of  the  state  takes  prece- 
dence of  individual  right,  for,  in  both  cases,  the  "  state  " 
represents  the  organized  means  for  maintaining  social 
justice.  Neither  doctrine  puts  faith  in  the  justice 
which  a  cultured  and  disinterested  minority  might  for- 
mulate, nor  does  either  to  any  extent  take  account  of 
any  absolute  standard  of  justice.  Both  agree  that  the 
purpose  for  which  organization  exists  is  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  prevalent  common-sense  morality. 

Government,  according  to  both  theories,  is  a  mere 
expedient;  in  both  doctrines  the  present  limitation  of 
man's  intelligence  is  the  chief  reason,  practically  the  only 
reason  why  part  of  the  nation  is  given  power  to  super- 
vise the  rest.  An  established  group  of  persons,  empow- 
ered to  regulate  the  association  of  men  is  not  in  either 
theory  exactly  desirable  or  necessary  so  much  as,  for 
the  present  at  least,  expedient  in  order  to  an  advisable 
peace  and  justice  in  the  relations  of  men.  Whether, 
as  the  Eevolutionists  claim,  the  weaknesses  of  men  are 
the  result  of  improper  social  influences,  or  whether,  as 
according  to  modern  socialism,  they  are  held  to  be  the 
surviving  instincts  of  the  primitive  brute,  in  either 
case,  government  which  is  to  hold  those  weaknesses  in 
check,  is  regarded  as  only  an  historical,  not  a  logical 
and  permanent,  category  of  human  association.  Either 
theory  holds  that  the  controlling  power  in  the  commu- 
nity is  the  mere  envoy  of  the  whole  sovereignty,  the 
executive  medium  by  which  the  too  cumbrous  legisla- 
tive, that  is,  the  sovereign  nation,  carries  out  its  will. 
The  idea  of  popular  sovereignty  to  be  expressed  by  pure 
democracy,  was  the  ideal  and  aim  of  the  Kevolution, 


POLITICAL  THEORIES.  369 

as  it  is  that  of  modern  socialism.  Each  theory  recog- 
nizes with  equal  emphasis  the  right  of  the  individual 
to  a  directing  share  in  the  affairs  of  organized  associa- 
tion. The  separation  of  opinion,  if  any,  on  this 
point  of  rights,  concerns  the  origin  of  the  individ- 
ual right.  The  revolutionary  doctrine  is  most  often 
accredited  with  the  claim  for  natural  rights;  socialism 
admits  that  individual  rights  are  legal,  not  natural, 
rights.  Since,  however,  as  has  been  seen,  an  appre- 
ciable body  of  doctrine  at  the  time  of  the  Kevolution 
denied  natural  rights,  and  since,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  is  a  pronounced  tendency  in  the  most  characteris- 
tic form  of  French  Socialism,  the  Independent  Social- 
ism, to  treat  certain  rights  as  axiomatic,  it  seems  justi- 
fiable to  say,  that  even  upon  this  point,  there  is  practi- 
cally a  coincidence  of  opinion. 

As  has  been  said,  the  real  and  tangible  line  of  sepa- 
ration between  the  two  political  theories  is  on  the  ques- 
tion of  administration  of  government.  On  the  border- 
line between  the  theory  and  the  practice  of  politics, 
when  deciding  what  measures  the  state  shall  adopt  to 
maintain  social  justice,  the  two  doctrines  part  company. 

The  state,  under  the  socialistic  theory,  is  given  a 
widened  sphere  of  action,  such  as  the  revolutionary 
theory  never  conceded  to  the  collective  will.  The  so- 
cialist would  wish  to  extend  the  functions  of  state  un- 
til they  should  include  the  entire  superintendence  of 
the  industrial  activity  of  the  nation.  The  Revolution- 
ists, on  the  contrary,  held  to  the  theory  of  laissez-faire 
in  all  matters  of  industry.  Socialism  adds  to  the  other 
rights  of  the  individual,  "  the  right  to  the  satisfaction 

24 


370  COMPARATIVE  REVIEW. 

of  his  economic  wants/'  and  so  imposes  upon  collective 
action  the  duty  of  organizing  and  controlling  the  eco- 
nomic system.  The  marked  distinction  between  the 
Kevolutionist's  and  the  Socialist's  political  doctrine  ap- 
pears when  the  former  says  that  true  freedom  is  se- 
cured to  each  individual  if  he  have  political  equality, 
while  the  other  urges  that  not  merely  political  equality 
but  economic  equality  before  the  law  is  imperative  in 
order  to  secure  to  each  individual  his  free  development. 
Socialism  denies  that  a  really  equal  distribution  of 
political  power  can  exist  until  there  be  social  control 
of  production.  Socialism  contends  that  the  Eevolution- 
ist,  and  every  other  who  argues  with  the  Revolutionist, 
is  wrong  to  think  that  men  are  really  politically  free  un- 
til they  are  economically  free. 

This  view,  of  course,  involves  first  of  all  a  separa- 
tion on  the  question  of  property,  although  it  must  be 
evident  from  what  has  gone  before,  that,  in  their  views 
concerning  the  origin  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  some 
possessor,  the  two  theories  are  not  so  far  apart  as  it  is 
usual  to  suppose.  It  is  in  the  application  of  the  doc- 
trine of  property,  that  the  difference  occurs  in  the  pre- 
vailing sum  of  opinion  on  each  side.  It  has  been  seen 
that  the  Revolution  recognized,  as  controlling  doctrines, 
first  those  which  derive  property  from  labor  and  make 
it  a  strictly  personal  affair,  toward  which  the  state 
acted  the  same  protecting  part  that  it  acted  toward 
other  natural  rights;  and,  secondly,  those  which  held 
the  state  to  be  the  possessor  for  all  time  and  the  in- 
dividual only  the  deputed  agent  who,  if  he  fail  to  use 
his  privileges  properly,  could  at  any  time  be  justifiably 


DOCTRINE  OF  PROPERTY.  371 

deprived  of  them.  It  will  be  recalled  too,  that  the 
latter  doctrine  was  the  one  most  often  advocated  dur- 
ing the  Kevolution.  It  will  be  further  remembered 
that  Modern  Socialism,  in  spite  of  its  different  way  of 
wording  its  theory,  holds  only  that  which  the  greater 
part  of  the  Revolutionary  theory  also  held,  namely, 
that  it  is  both  just  and  expedient  to  consider  all  prop- 
erty as  ultimately  subject  to  state  control.  The  funda- 
mental principle  regarding  property  seems  then  to  be 
the  same  in  both  theories;  as  has  been  said,  it  is  the 
application  of  this  principle  which  marks  the  differ- 
ence between  the  two  doctrines.  It  is  true  that,  like 
modern  French  Socialism,  the  Eevolutionary  theories 
started  with  the  assumption  that  the  source  of  power 
was  the  real  possessor  of  all  property,  a  principle  de- 
rived from  the  dominant  theory,  and  practice  of  all 
the  preceding  national  life  of  France.  The  Eevolu- 
tionists  did  not  however  advocate  state  administration 
of  property;  French  Socialists  make  their  most  char- 
acteristic claim  for  this  very  thing.  At  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  theories  more  fundamental  than  the  idea 
of  property  held  that  social  utility  argued  against  state 
control  of  property.  The  Revolutionist,  believing  in 
individual  initiative  never  went  in  theory  beyond  an 
active  state  supervision  of  property  and  industry.  The 
aim  was  to  exercise  a  minimum  check  upon  production, 
but  there  was  little  thought  of  controlling  distribution.^ 
Modern  French  Socialism  believes  that  public  well- 
being,  and  so  individual  well-being,  is  really  best  sub- 

1  Laws  enacted  during  the  Terror  are  not  here  taken  into 
account. 


372  COMPARATIVE  REVIEW. 

served  when  collective  action  obtains  a  controlling  in- 
fluence upon  the  distribution  of  wealth.  Thus,  al- 
though the  Eevolutionary  theory  usually  agreed  with 
Modern  Socialism  as  to  the  fundamental  relation  of 
the  state  to  property,  though  it  held,  as  the  contempo- 
rary socialism  of  France  does,  that  the  state  was  pos- 
sessor, yet  the  sharp  divergence  on  a  determining  point 
of  social  theory  made  for  a  different  conclusion.  The 
theory  of  the  Revolution  held  that  the  state  should 
use  its  right  to  appropriate,  only  as  a  means  to  a  new 
apportionment.  Socialism,  on  the  other  hand,  would 
exercise  the  right  to  appropriation,  but  would  wish  to 
see  it  followed  by  state  retention  in  order  to  a  state 
direction  which  should  insure  to  every  individual  his 
right  to  the  economic  satisfaction  of  his  wants.  No- 
where is  it  more  evident  than  in  the  character  of  this 
separation  upon  the  property  question,  that  the  de- 
termining character  of  Modern  Socialism  does  not 
really  rest  upon  a  theory  of  property-holding,  but  upon 
some  principle  behind  the  theory. 

The  Revolutionary  theory  that  predominated  de- 
cided to  eliminate  the  state  wherever  the  satisfaction 
of  specifically  material  wants  was  involved;  socialism 
holds  that  the  state,  that  is,  organized  society,  should 
have  the  deciding  voice,  as  in  the  other  activities  of 
social  life. 

The  specific  part  of  the  doctrine  of  socialism  proves 
to  be  its  belief  that  in  order  to  true  individual  happi- 
ness, organized  society  must  exercise  an  equalizing  in- 
fluence on  the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth; 
that  the  individual  is  no  more  justifiably  free  from  a 


MODERN  SOCIALISM.  373 

certain  state  supervision  as  industrial  agent  than  he  is 
in  any  other  role.  Both  theories  expect  much  from 
associated  action;  both  theories  exact  that  the  state 
secure  the  well-being  of  every  individual  in  the  com- 
munity; neither  regards  organized  society  as  a  mere 
protector.  But  under  socialism,  organized  society  is 
to  preserve,  protect  and  cultivate  the  individual  to  a 
far  greater  degree  than  the  earlier  theory  required  or 
wished.  It  is  the  real  claim  of  the  socialist  that  each 
man  has  a  right  to  expect  from  the  state,  not  only  the 
mere  existence  which  the  Eevolutionary  theory  would 
guarantee  him,  but  also  and  most  of  all,  a  right  to 
have  provided  for  him  the  means  for  an  enlightened 
existence.  Society  acting  collectively,  that  is,  the  state, 
should  see  that  each  member  of  society  has  always  the 
possibility  for  intellectual  growth  during  his  existence. 
Socialism  is  then  a  theory  which  would  insist  that  each 
man  should  by  right  be  freed  through  state  interven- 
tion from  the  necessity  of  a  struggle  for  existence  and 
thus  be  enabled  to  undertake  a  personal  struggle  to 
enjoy  existence.  Neglectful  of  the  well-recognized 
truth  that  man's  well-being  is  essentially  menaced  if  the 
right  to  enjoy  be  given  him  too  freely  or  too  abruptly, 
socialistic  theory  asks  that  the  state  insure  just  this 
gift  to  each  man  at  the  earliest  practicable  time.  It 
is  this  which  makes  it  at  once  a  new  theory  and  a  weak 
theory. 

Scarcely  new  in  its  general  principles,  rather  the 
lineal  descendant  of  a  long  line  of  thought,  socialism 
yet  differs  so  far  from  the  Eevolutionary  or  any  pre- 
vious radicalism  in  method  and  in  a  determining  prin- 


374  COMPARATIVE  REVIEW. 

ciple  of  politics,  that  it  brings  many  minds  to  a  new 
point  of  view  in  regard  to  an  old  claim  in  the  name 
of  humanity.  Its  power  lies  here.  Any  thoughtful 
mind  lends  itself  with  sympathy  and  interest  to  the 
general  claims  of  the  school.  There  are  many  socialists 
to-day,  if  to  he  a  socialist  is  to  hope  that  the  generations 
of  the  future  will  learn  the  concerted  unselfishness  that 
will  frown  with  the  force  of  legalized  public  opinion 
upon  our  system  of  distributing  and  permitting  to  re- 
main distributed  among  the  few,  privileges  which  act 
as  a  dead  hand  upon  later  generations.  The  end  of 
the  century  is  largely  socialistic,  if  it  be  socialistic  to 
regard  as  morally  hideous  the  selfish  accumulation  of 
money  extorted  by  tricks  of  combination  and  specu- 
lation. But  modern  French  Socialism,  as  all  socialism, 
is  something  more  than  moral  indignation;  it  is  a  po- 
litical system  based  upon  a  philosophy  which  denies  in- 
dividual responsibility  and  puts  the  onus  of  public  and 
private  well-being  upon  collective  action.  The  weak- 
ness of  a  system  that  starts  from  such  a  principle  has 
perhaps  been  suf^ciently  accented. 

Even  though  the  Independent  Socialism  be  taken  as 
the  typical  French  Socialism,  and  so  the  objections  to 
a  materialistic  and  one-sided  conception  of  history  be 
waived,  even  then  both  doctrines  are  weaker  than  the 
Revolutionary  theory,  for  they  would  wish  to  create  a 
social  system  which  depends,  at  every  point  in  its  con- 
struction, upon  the  individual's  unselfishness  and  sense 
of  personal  responsibility,  yet  they  argue  from  prem- 
ises which  almost  entirely  neglect  the  significance  of 
the  individual.     The  doctrine  is  weak  in  that,  claim- 


MODERN  SOCIALISM.  375 

ing  to  aim  at  the  elevation  and  development  of  indi- 
vidual capacity,  it  rests  its  strongest  hope,  not  upon 
universal  education,  although  it  indorses  this,  not  upon 
a  larger  and  freer  use  of  political  privilege,  though  it 
urges  the  desirability  of  this,  but  chiefly  and  primarily 
upon  an  increased  physical  energy  to  be  gained  for  each 
individual  by  a  more  or  less  arbitrary  distribution  of 
the  national  product.  It  is  weakest  in  that  it  centers 
men's  aims  upon  the  raising  of  their  standard  of  life, 
while  it  likewise  throws  the  whole  responsibility  for 
physical  and  moral  weakness  upon  a  social  system.  To 
teach  men  that  systems  make  human  nature  and  not 
human  nature  systems,  is  to  belittle  the  effectiveness 
of  each  individual  in  a  way  which  seriously  menaces 
any  society,  most  of  all  a  society  which  is  to  be  cast  in 
the  democratic  mold.  The  Eevolutionary  principles 
were  scarcely  guilty  of  this  inconsistency.  They  can 
hardly  be  accused  of  dulling  men's  spiritual  life  by 
making  it  seem  bound  up  in  the  mere  satisfaction  of 
physical  needs;  they  counted  the  significance  of  the 
individual  so  high  that  their  first  immediate  influence 
was  to  make  that  individual  almost  a  fetich. 

Socialism  itself  has  aided  us  to  understand  the  fault 
of  the  mere  particularism  which  was  one  interpretation 
of  the  revolutionary  doctrine  just  as  sound  individual- 
ism has  aided  toward  the  understanding  of  a  more 
valuable  truth  than  that  taught  by  this  socialistic 
doctrine.  It  seems  to-day  undeniable  that  the  in- 
dividual and  society  are  inextricably  parts  of  a 
whole,  each  dependent  for  life  and  character  upon 
the  other,  but  the  social  forces  which  are  so  vital  to 


376  COMPARATIVE  REVIEW. 

the  life  of  the  individual  are  in  a  last  analysis  depend- 
ent upon  the  instincts  and  capacities  which  each  mem- 
ber of  the  community  brings  to  that  association.  The 
content  of  a  given  subjective  life  to-day  may  be  largely 
the  accumulation  of  social  experiences;  but  those  social 
experiences,  those  social  facts  are  the  garnered  legacy 
of  the  thoughts  of  individuals.  Each  of  the  doctrines 
discussed  has  a  value  and  a  meaning.  The  one  taught 
by  its  very  over-accenting  of  "  rational  sanction/^  the 
value  of  the  individual;  the  other,  in  attributing  so 
much  to  the  connection  between  the  collective  action 
and  the  individual  well-being  has  surely  pointed  for  all 
of  us  the  moral  obligation  to  recognize  more  fully  the 
value  and  duty  of  associated  action. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  future  is  bringing  a 
time  when  we  shall  demonstrate  in  institutions  greater 
socialized  effort.  But  any  organized  experiment,  based 
upon  conscious  social  service,  will  depend  for  its  suc- 
cess upon  the  stage  of  development  reached  by  that 
fundamental  and  decisive  factor,  the  individual.  Past 
experiences  of  social  growth  have  had  to  do  with  a 
mass  of  humanity,  of  whom  the  greater  part  knew  only 
elementary  subjective  life.  If  Protestantism,  regarded 
as  a  method  of  training,  rather  than  as  a  religion,  to- 
gether with  the  public  school  and  universal  suffrage, 
shall  develop  a  new  type  of  man  and  citizen,  who  can 
say  what  will  be  the  results  of  collective  action,  when  in 
the  future  it  directs  its  attention  to  industry,  as  it  has 
in  the  past  aided  to  foster  the  growth  of  other  social 
institutions?  But  such  state  superintendence  must 
come  about  strictly  in  the  line  of  historical  develop- 


SOCIALISM  AND   THE  FUTURU.  377 

ment,  and  not  as  an  agitation  fanned  to  an  unnatural 
heat  by  ill-advised  enthusiasts.  Society  must  grow 
slowly  to  the  exercise  of  the  new  functions;  there 
must  be  the  gradual  alteration  in  the  atoms  which 
make  up  a  body  before  that  body  itself  can  successfully 
assume  and  keep  a  new  form.  If,  instead  of  being  set 
up  in  advance,  as  the  means  of  individual  development, 
collective  action  shall  come  about  as  the  result  of  a  real 
growth  in  individuality,  who  will  deny  its  possibilities 
as  a  means  to  better  and  more  vigorous  life? 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX 


TABULAR  COMPARISON  OF  THE  TWO  THEORIES. 


Modern    French 

End  of  Association. 

Individual  development  by 
way  of  greatest  possible  lib- 
erty and  equality. 

Means  to  end:      Solidarity. 


Social  Theory. 

Socialism.  French  Revolution. 

End  of  Association. 

General   happiness. 


Origin   of  Association. 

8c.  8oc. —  Innate  need  of 
man  for  physical  develop- 
ment, by  means  of  fuller  sat- 
isfaction of  wants. 

Int.  Soc. —  Innate  need  of 
man  for  physical,  mental  and 
moral  development;  thus,  the 
demand  of  man's  nature,  as 
a  "  social  being." 

Result    of   Association. 

8c.  Soc. —  Physiological  de- 
velopment until  environment 
frees  him  from  fierce  strug- 
gle for  existence;  then  cere- 
bral development,  whence  So- 
cial Progress. 

Int.  8oG. —  Realization  of 
justice  by  the  physiological 
and  psychological  develop- 
ment of  man. 


Means  to  end; 
freedom. 


Individual 


Origin  of  Association. 
Instinct  of  man,  or,  again 
and  most  frequently,  the  de- 
sire of  man  for  peace. 


Result   of  Association. 

Loss  of  individual  indepen- 
dence, but  gain  of  justice  and 
morality. 


Vital  Conditions  for  any  So- 
cial Order  to  Fulfill  its  end. 

Social  organization  which 
shall  insure  economic,  as  well 
as  political,  equality  to  each 
individual  in  order  to  his  free 
development. 

.  381  . 


Vital  Conditions  for  any  So- 
cial Order  to  Fulfill  its  end. 

Political  organization  which 
shall  insure  to  each  individ- 
ual equal  freedom  to  seek  his 
own  happiness. 


382 


APPENDIX. 


Political  Theory. 

Modern  French  Socialism.  French  Revolution. 

Origin    of   Polity.  Origin   of   Polity. 

Individual  property-holding.  Individual  property-holding. 


General  Principles  for  Main- 
taining  Equality. 

Control  by  collectivity  of 
all  that  which  in  civilization 
is  clearly  social,  therefore, 
collective  holding  of  land  and 
all  social  means  of  produc- 
tion. Thus,  collective,  not  in- 
dividual, action  necessary  to 
insure  social  well-being. 

End  of   Government 
Well-being  of  collectivity. 


Form   of   Government. 
Democracy. 

Principle    of   Democracy. 

Government  rest  on  active 
participation  in  public  affairs 
of  all  self-supporting  law- 
abiding  persons,  whence  Pop- 
ular Sovereignty. 

Laws   Necessary    to   Preserve 
Democracy. 

I.  Legal  Recognition  of 
Natural  Rights  and  exercise 
of  Social  Duties. 

Individual  Rights. — Freedom 
of  thought,  right  to  justice,  to 
choose  one's  country,  to  se^ 
curity  of  life  and  property,  to 
free  expression  of  opinion,  to 
freedom  of  sexual  relations, 
except  in  case  of  a  family,  to 
the  satisfaction  of  economic 
wants. 


General  Principles  for  Main- 
taining  Equality. 

Simplicity  of  wants;  small 
holdings  and  production  on  a 
small  scale,  to  be  insured  by 
Legislation,  whence  govern' 
ment  the  final  means  to  social 
content. 


End  of  Government. 
To  insure  liberty,  equality 
and  fraternity  to  individuals. 

Form  of  Government. 
Democracy. 

Principle    of   Democracy. 

General  will  is  the  only 
just  sanction  to  authority, 
whence  Sovereignty  of  the 
People,  one  and  indivisible. 


Laws   Necessary   to   Preserve 
Democracy. 

I.  Legal  Recognition  of 
Natural  Rights  and  exercise 
of  Social  Duties. 

Individual  Rights. — Liberty, 
security,  property,  public  debt, 
religious  freedom,  right  of 
general  education,  of  public 
assistance,  of  liberty  of  press, 
of  assembly,  of  petition,  of 
participation  in  affairs  of  gov- 
ernment, right  of  insurrec* 
tion. 


TABULAR  COMPARISON. 


383 


Modern  French  Socialism. 
Social  Duties. 
Social    Duties. —  1.    To    or» 
ganize  economic  system. 

2.  To  establish  and  regu- 
late public  defense. 

3.  To  regulate  foreign  rela- 
tions. 

4.  To  maintain  public  or- 
der by  means  of  civil  and 
penal  jjstice. 

5.  To  maintain  a  system  of 
Public  edueation. 


French  Revolution. 
Social  Duties. 
Social  Duties. —  1.  To  main- 
tain national  honor  at  home 
and  abroad. 

2.  To  maintain  public  or- 
der and  the  rights  of  man,  by 
civil  and  penal  laws,  and 
courts  to  interpret  these  laws. 

3.  To  maintain  a  system  of 
Public  Education. 


II.  Popular  Power  for  Leg- 
islation. 

Universal  Suffrage,  irre- 
spective'of  sex; 

Ballot,  Ballotage,  Majority 
Decisions  to  insure  that  the 
general  will  be  expressed. 

Popular  Initiative  and  Ref- 
erendum to  be  constantly 
used  in  order  to  the  nearest 
possible  approach  to  Direct 
Legislation  by  the  people. 


II.  Popular  Power  for  Leg^ 
islation. 

Universal,  direct  Suffrage 
as  Basis  of  Legislation; 

Ballotage  and  Decisions  by 
absolute  majority. 

Popular  Initiative  granted 
for  Constitutional  Amendment 
on  demand  of  one-tenth  of 
Regular  Primary  Assemblies 
in  majority  of   Departments. 

Obligatory  Referendum. 

If  forty  days  from  time  of 
promulgation,  in  majority  of 
depts.,  one-tenth  of  primaries 
have  not  protested,  bill  be- 
comes a  law;  thus  veto  with 
the  people. 


Government    Planned     under 
these  Principles. 

Legislative. —  People  to  be 
the  Legislative. 

No  Parliamentary  govern- 
ment, all  representative  gov- 
ernment a  regrettable  expedi- 
ent to  disappear  with  the  ad» 
vent  of  Socialism. 


Oovernment     Planned     under 
these  Principles. 

Legislative. —  Deputies. 
Principles   of   Rep. —  Popu- 
lation   (1   to  40,000). 
Qualifications. — Citizen^ip. 
Term. —  One  year. 


384 


APPENDIX. 


Modern  French  Socialism. 
Legislative. 


Executive  and  Judicial. 

Functionaries  to  be  ap- 
pointed to  exercise  these  pow- 
ers. 

Source. —  Always  universal, 
direct  elections.  Voting  to  be 
always  on  programs,  not  on 
persons. 

Principles  of  Representa- 
tio7i. —  Territorial. 

Qualifications. — Citizenship, 
except  where  special  mental 
powers  are  required;  then  an 
examination. 


French  Revolution. 
Legislative. 

Powers. —  All  residual  leg- 
islative and  executive  power. 

International  Organization. 
—  Session  of  a  year  (in  2 
periods ) .  Public  sessions. 
Quorum,  1/2  members  plus 
one.  Decision  by  absolute 
majority. 

Executive  and  Judicial. 

Executive  Council,  a  sort  of 
minority;  24  members. 


Source. —  Legislative  Body 
chosen  from  a  list  sent  by 
depots. 

Qualifications. — Citizenship. 


Terms. —  Brief. 


Powers. —  Minimum  al- 

ways; clearly  defined  and  al- 
ways checked. 

A  uniform  Civil  and  Penal 
Code. 


Term. —  One  year,  chang- 
ing by  halves. 

Rights. —  Right  to  speak  in 
Legislature. 

Duties. —  Responsible  to 
Legislative. 

Powers. —  Management  and 
supervision  of  administration, 
under   control   of  legislative. 

A  uniform  Civil  and  Penal 
Code. 

Tenure. —  Direct  or  indirect 
vote  of  people. 

Judiciary. 
Justices  of  Peace,  direct. 
Higher   Courts,   indirect. 


TABULAR  COMPARISON. 


385 


Modern  French  Socialism. 
General  Principles  of  Admin- 
istration. 
No  standing  army.  Admin- 
istrative law  to  favor  polit- 
ical decentralization.  Coun- 
try to  be  divided  into  small, 
co-ordinated  sections,  inde- 
pendent for  deliberative  pur- 
poses. 


French  Revolution. 

General  Principles  of  Admin- 
istration. 

No  standing  army. 

Aim  —  Political  Decentral- 
ization, but  all  departments 
primarily  controlled  by  Legis- 
lative. Officials  of  Depart- 
ments, district  and  commune 
locally  elected,  but  finally 
controlled  by  Legislative. 


AR 


rvVTHE 

OF     ^,,^^ 
jCAUFO^ 


IM'DEX 


ABSOLUTE  monarchy,  its  fall  fol- 
lows that  of  spiritual  absolut- 
ism, 67. 
despotic  rule  of,  causes  its  down- 
fall, ibid. 

Absolutism,  decay  of,  in  France  dur- 
ing 18th  century,  66,  67. 

Agrarian  problem,  in  French  Social- 
ism to-day,  284,  285. 

Agriculture,  its  condition  in  time  of 
Louis  XV,  69. 

Alaville,  on  evils  of  inheritance,  341. 

Alembert,  D',  leader  of  new  thought, 
8. 

Almanachs,  role  of,  during  the  Revo- 
lution, 107. 

Altruism,  Idealistic  Socialists'  faith 
in,  207. 
Integral  Socialists'  belief  in,  337. 

America,   influence   of,    on    French 
revolutionary  principles,  76. 

Anarchy,  of  France  in  1789-1791, 116- 
118. 

Appropriationist  theory  of   French 
Revolution,  169. 

Argenson.    See  D'Argenson. 

Artisan,  under  Louis  XVI,  84. 
may  be  classed   with   peasant  of 
Revolution,  85n. 

Assemblies.    See  Provincial  Assem- 
blies. 

Assembly,    Constituent.      See  Con- 
stituent Assembly. 

Association,  principle  of,  taught  by 
Idealistic  Socialists,  226. 
Integral  Socialism  on,  317-320. 

Aulard,  cited,  134n,  135n. 


BABEAU,  cited,  70n,  84n. 
abeuf,  belongs   among  predeces- 
sors of  socialism,  195. 
the  principle  advocated  by,  202,  203. 
on  property,  212n. 
Babouvism,  begins  at   "  Cercle  So- 
cial,''''  99. 
its  doctrines,  202. 

marks  the  beginning  of  practical 
character  of  modern   socialism, 
214.    Cf.  Babeuf. 
Bailly,  in  policy  of  Louis  XVI,  71n. 
on  oath  of  the  Tennis  Court,  74n. 
on  clubs,  97n, 

on  Declaration  of  Rights,  149w,  151n.. 
Bar6re,  on  religion,  134w. 
on  Rights  of  Man,  154n. 
Barnave,  at  Jacobin  Club,  99. 

on  Rights  of  Man,  152. 
Beauharnais,  Madame  de,  her  salon 

in  1789,  95. 
Beggars,  in  Paris,  1791,  109. 
Belloc,  cited,  84n,  86n,  91n\  260n. 
Bertrand,  on  definition  of  socialism, 

315. 
Bishops,  of  France,  as  a  rule  belong 

to  the  nobility,  79n. 
Blanc,  on  newspapers  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, 105n. 
on  Claude  Fauchet,  139n. 
on  the  Rights  of  Man,  168n. 
on  equality,  16lw. 
on  Robespierre,  181. 
his  deism,  200. 

his  belief  in  social  justice,  205. 
is  an  altruist,  207. 
on  education,  210. 


387 


388 


INDEX 


Blanc,  on  property,  212n, 

on  Saint  Simonians,  2t7n. 

on  methods  of  production,  223. 

position  of,  toward  labor,  227. 

influence  on  later  socialism,  281. 
Boileau,  suggests  the  change  of  feel- 
ing in  Louis  XVI's  time,  7. 
Boisguillebert,  plans  for  reform,  7. 
Boiteau,  cited,  87n. 
Booth,  cited,  217w. 
Bourgeoisie.    See  Third  Estate. 
Boyer-Fonfrdde,    on    popular    sov- 
ereignty, 174. 
Broussists,  socialist  faction,  280. 
Bruneti^re,  cited,  70n,  84n. 
Buchez,  his  religion  of  progress,  204. 

his  influence   on   modern  French 
socialism,  231. 

CABET,  not  really  a  socialist,  195n. 
af6  de  Foi,  its  position  during  the 
Revolution,  102. 
Caf6s,  a  social  force  in  1789, 100. 
become  party  headquarters,  ibid. 
character  of  debates  at,  102. 
Cahiers,  of  1615,  88. 
of  1789,    suggest    formulation    of 

Rights  of  Man,  150. 
endorse  popular  sovereignty,  173. 
Cambon,  on  property,  166. 
Camus,  on  religion,  134n. 

on  property,  167n. 
Capital,  Pecquer  and  Vidal  on,  223. 
Scientific  Socialism  on  relation  of, 

to  labor,  297,  804. 
law  of  concentration  of,  307. 
socialistic  definition  of,  807. 
how  far   concentration    of,   true, 
809JI. 
Capitalistic   production,  era   of,  as 
discerned   by    Scientific    Social- 
ism, 303. 
Catholicism,  its  officials  unwittingly 
aid  revolt,  11. 
its  code  of  ethics  opposed,  16. 
attitude  of  Assembly  toward,  133rt. 


"  Cercle  Social,^''  club  of  the  masses, 
98. 
wins  them  to  revolutionary  princi- 
ples, 99. 
Centralization,     endorsed    by     the 
Revolution,  184. 
French  respect  for,  helps  popular- 
ize socialism,  254. 
opposed  as  a  political  principle  by 
Integral  Socialism,  328. 
Charabras.  Madame  de,  holds  reac- 
tionary salon  in  1789,  95. 
Chapelier,  on  liberty  of  the  press,  158. 
Chenier,     M.-J.,     influence    of    his 

"Charles  IX,'M03. 
Cherest,  cited,  73n,  lOln,  106n,  150n. 
Church   of    France.     See    Galilean 

Church. 
Civil  law  under  Louis  XV,  67. 

under  Louis  XVI,  72. 
Civil  liberty.    See  Liberty. 
Civilization,  scorned   by   Rousseau, 
22  sq. 
Idealistic  Socialists  on,  222. 
Scientific  Socialists  on,  292. 
Integral  Socialism  on,  318  sq. 
Class   struggle,   IdcHlistic  Socialists 
advance  the  idea  of,  224. 
doctrine  of,  in  Scientific  Socialism, 
295,  296. 
Clergy,  French,  in  1789,  unlikely  to 
lead  revolt,  because  of  disunity, 
79. 
upper  clergy  conservative,  80. 
lower  clergy  radical,  ibid. 
disaffected   during   Revolution  by 
civil  constitution  of,  195n. 
Clubs,  develop  rapidly  in  1789,  97. 
their  influence  as  schools  of  poli- 
tics, ibid. 
Jacobin,  the  leading  influence,  98, 

99. 
a  power   as   means  to  get  at  the 
masses,  99. 
•'  Club  des  Enrages,'''  its  radical  influ- 
ence, 100. 


INDEX. 


389 


Comte,  Auguste,  on  social  progress, 
219. 
his  school  aud  its  influence,  244. 
Concentration  of  capital.    See  Capi- 
tal. 
Condillac,    an     influence    for     new 

methods  of  study,  8. 
Condorcet,    his   power   of   abstract 
reasoning,  119. 
advocated  doctrine  of  social  prog 

ress,  140. 
on  equality,  161. 
on  popular  sovereignty,  173. 
on  function  of  state,  173n. 
Constituent   Assembly,    marks  first 
stage  toward  expression  of  revo- 
lutionary principles,  110. 
draws  up  Rights  of  Man,  111. 
its  general  character.  111. 
its  Rousseauist  attitude,  153n. 
Constitution  of  1791,  its  provisions, 

112, 113. 
Constitution  of   1793,  its  character, 
122. 
reasons  for  holding  it  to  be  the  ex- 
pression   of   the    revolutionary 
principles,  123. 
embodies  the  idea  of  popular  sov- 
ereignty, 177. 
Co-operation,  a  means  to  social  con- 
tentment, 226. 
mechanical     production     teaches 

value  of,  265. 
trades-unions  accent,  295, 296. 
Cordeliers,  in  1789,  98. 
acts  as  power  to  win  popularity 
for  the  revolutionary  principles, 
99. 
CorneiUe,  belonged  to  Third  Estate, 

89. 
Coubertin,  cited,  268n,  279n,  285n. 
Cousin,  on  Rights  of  Man,  152. 
Couthon,  on  s«cial  contract,  143n. 

on  popular  sovereignty,  178w. 
Crenidres,  on  Rights  of  Man,  153. 
Cur6s,  during  Revolution,  79,  80. 


D  ANTON,  at  Cordeliers,  99. 
on  property,  166. 
D'Argenson,  doctrine  of  happiness, 
22. 
on  liberty,  34u. 
on  property,  49. 

foretells  the  Revolution,  62,68,  68n-. 
Declaration  of  Rights,  of  1789, 149-158. 

of  1793,  154. 
Deism,  of  Voltaire,  12. 
of  Rousseau,  13. 
of  the  "philosophes,"  12. 
of  the  Revolution,  134  sq. 
Democracy,  taught  by  Rousseau,  85. 
by  revolutionary  theory,  178. 
popularity   of,  in   France,  during 

19th  century,  248. 
influence  of,  284  sq. 
ideal  of,  formulated  by  France,  250. 
in  English  history,  260. 
Americans  and,  250. 
French   love   of,  creates  political 

instability,  253. 
inclines  public  to  listen  to  radical 

theories,  253. 
Scientific  Socialists'  belief  in,  291. 
Integral  Socialism  on,  329  sq. 
critical  discussion  of,  330  sq. 
Revolutionists  and   Socialists  on, 
363  sq. 
Demolin,  cited,  255w. 
Descartes,  of  the  Third  Estate,  89. 
Desmoulins,  at  "  Club  des  Enrag^s,^* 
100. 
his  "■France  Libre,^''  107. 
Determinism,  economic,  in  Scientifla 

Socialism,  803  sq. 
De  Tocqueville,  cited,  71n,  82ii,  83n, 

87n. 
Deville,  on  revolution  and  evolution 
in  socialism,  253n. 
on  strikes,  268n. 

on  socialistic  definition  of  revolu- 
tion, 281. 
on  Marxism,  286. 
definition  of  socialisih,  292. 


890 


INDEX. 


Deville,  on  the  development  of  the 

individual,  293. 

on  social  progress,  294,  295,  296. 

on  property,  297. 

on  surplus  labor,  298. 

on    individual's    share    in    social 
progress,  302. 

on  capital,  308. 

on  the  state,  311. 
Diderot,  begins  new  philosophy,  8. 

attitude  concerning  progress,  15. 

definition  of  happiness,  21. 

on  equality,  43. 
Distribution  of   power,    theory   of, 

during  the  Revolution,  175. 
Dom  Gerle,  on  Catholic  cult,  183. 
Ducos,  on  separation  of  powers  of 

government,  176. 
Dumont,  cited.  111. 
Dupont  de  Nemours,  aids  in  founding 

modern  political  economy,  8. 
Duties,  social,  asked  for  in  1789,  257. 

ECONOMIC  determinism.     See  De- 
terminism . 
Economists.    See  Physiocrats. 
Education,  Idealistic   Socialists   on, 
210,211. 
Integral  Socialism  on,  827w. 
Ely,  cited,  194. 

Encyclopedists,  on  means  to  secure 
happiness,  21. 
hold  equality  as  an  ideal,  43. 
on  property,  47. 

tendency  of  their  teachings,  ibid. 
their  special  influence,  53. 
Engels,  influence,  on  socialism,  276. 
on  share  of  the  individual  in  social 
progress,  234. 
English  influences,  on  French  life  and 

thought,  75  sq. 
Equality,  popularity  of  the  idea  of, 
in  France  during  18th  century,  38. 
reasons  for  popularity,  39  sq. 
usual  attitude  of  political  writers 
toward,  41. 


Equality,  Montesquieu  on,  41. 
Economists  on,  42. 
Mably  on,  ibid. 

Voltaire  and  Encyclopedists  on,  43. 
Rousseau's  theories  on,  44  sq. 
possible  interpretations  of,  160. 
revolutionary     doctrine     concern- 

ing,  160  sq. 
alteration  in  revolutionary  theory 
of,  162. 
Estate,  Third.    See  Third  Estate. 
Espinas,  cited,  163w,  203w,  240n. 
Estraigne,  Comte  d\  on  Rights  of 

Man,  152. 
Ethics,  18th  century  doctrine  of,  16. 
Idealistic  Socialists  on,  206. 
of  19th  century,  develop  social  con- 
sciousness, 257. 
Integral  Socialism  on,  316. 
Etienne  Marcel,  asks   for  social  re- 
forms, 88. 
Eugene  Sue,  an  influence  for  social- 
ism, 234. 

FACTIONS,    socialists,   of    to-day, 
280. 
Faguet,  cited,  164n. 
Family,  Scientific  Socialism  on,  310. 
Fauchet,  Claude,  teaches  Rousseau 
at  "  Cercle  Social,''  99. 
on  Natural  Man,  139. 
Feuillants,  club  of  the  Revolution, 

98. 
Fleury,  his  ministry  marks  the  last 
effort  at  enlightened  despotism, 
67. 
Flore,  caf6,  where  men  seek  in  vain 

to  be  non-partisan,  101. 
Fourier,  early  socialist,  195. 
recognizes  a  divine  power,  199. 
his  belief  in  altruism,  207. 
on  property,  212n. 
position  toward  civilization,  222. 
his  influence,  231 . 
Franklin,   invents    the    phrase   "  ya 
ira,"  77n. 


INDEX. 


391 


Fraternity,  doctrine  of,  during  the 
Revolution,  186n,. 

Freedom  of  thought,  revolutionary- 
theories  concerning,  157, 158. 

GALLICAN  CHURCH,  degeneracy 
of,  during  the  18th  century,  65. 
Gaudet,  Gironde  orator,  119. 

cited,  119?i. 
Genlis,  Madame  de,  her  salon,  in  1789, 

96. 
George  Sand,  cited,  204. 

her  efforts  for  socialism,  284n.,  267n. 
Girondins,  oppose  Jacobins,  119. 
history  and  characterization  of,  in 

brief,  ibid. 
final  struggle  with  Jacobins,  121. 
Goncourt,    Edmond   and   Jules,  de, 

cited,  77n,  97*1,  102n,  105n,  106n. 
Government,  held  to  be  a  necessary 
evil,  145. 
revolutionary  theory  of,    178,  183, 

184. 
Scientific  Socialism  on,  809. 
Integral  Socialism  on,  328-530. 
Revolutionists   and   Socialists   on, 
364. 
Gr6goire,  Abb6,  on  government,  179. 
Growth  of  revolt  under  the  Regency 

and  Louis  XV,  63  sq. 
Guesde,  founds  "  Parti  ouvrier,"  279. 
on  concentration  of  capital,  308. 
on  religion  and  the  family,  310. 
on  the  state,  310. 
Guesdists,  279. 

HAPPINESS,  the  end  of  existence, 
13. 

secured  by  following  Nature,  16. 

three  18th  century  definitions  of, 
17. 

means  to  secure,  according  to 
18th  century  philosophy,  18  sq. 

revolutionary  theory  of,  132. 

Idealistic  Socialists  make,  their  ob- 
jective point,  208. 


Happiness,  idea  of  what  constitutes, 
becomes  more  materialistic,  271. 
revolutionary  and  socialistic  theo- 
ries of,  363, 364. 
Helvetius,    shares   in    rousing   new 

feeling,  8. 
Helvetius,  Madame  d',  salon  of,  95. 
Higgs,  cited,  19n. 
Holbach,  d\  his  teachings,  8. 

IDEALISTIC    Socialists,    recognize 
Deity,  199. 

are  optimistic  as  regards  human 
nature,  201. 

argue  for  social  responsibility,  201. 

reassert  revolutionary  doctrine  of 
Rights,  202  sq. 

advocate  "social  justice,"  205. 

on  education,  210. 

on  property,  211. 

summary  of  their  primary  concep- 
tions, 213. 

doctrine  of,  has  a  practical  aim,  214. 

profess  scientific  method,  216. 

teach  social  progress,  218. 

on  state  control  of  industry,  223  sq. 

immediate    changes    desired    by, 
226, 

position  on  labor,  227  sq. 

summary  of    characteristic    doc- 
trines, 229. 

their  immediate  influence,  281  sq. 
Independent  Socialism.    See  Integral 

Socialism. 
Industrial  conditions  during  the  reign 
of  Louis  XV,  69. 

under  Louis  XVI,  72. 
Industrialism,  becomes   the  central 
interest  for  socialists  with  Saint 
Simon,  222. 

said  to  cause  class  differences,  224. 

in  a  comparatively  backward  state 
in  modern  France,  260. 

brings  increasing  interdependence, 
262-265. 

stimulates  class  feeling,  265-268. 


392 


INDEX. 


Industrialism,   intensifies  social  un- 
rest, 268. 
Individualism,  of  18th  century,  11. 

in  revolutionary  principles,  146. 

extreme,  not  apparent  until  after 
the  Revolution,  182. 
Integral  Socialism,  its  origin,  280. 

its  definition  of  socialism,  314. 

fundamental  distinction  from  Sci- 
entific Socialism,  315. 

on  origin  of  society,  317  sq. 

on  end  of  society,  320. 

on  the  political  problem,  321. 

on  the  relation  between  society  and 
the  individual,  322. 

definition  of  liberty,  323. 

on  individual  rights,  324. 

functions  of  state,  325  sq. 

political  theory  of,  328. 

on  decentraHzation,  329. 

on  government,  329. 

critical  discussion  of  government 
theory,  330  sq. 

demand  for  social  control  of  indus- 
try, 334. 

argues  justice  of  social  control,  335. 

on   social   control    of   productive 
property,  336-340. 

criticism  of  this  theory,  340-342. 

asks  universal  obligation  to  labor, 
343. 

plan  for  production,  344  sq. 

critical  discussion  of  this  plan,  347 
sq. 

on  distribution,  349. 

on  exchange,  351. 

on  value,  351  sq. 
Intellectual  liberty,  demand  for  it, 

during  18th  century,  28  sq. 
Irreconcilables,  French,  of  1793,  pref . 

V. 

of  to-day,  pref.  v. 
Isnard,  119. 

JACOBIN  CLUB,  its  great  influence 
on  revolutionary  thinking,  98,  99. 


Jacobin  party,  its  character,  115. 

reasons  for  its  coming  to  jKJwer,  115. 

anarchy  of  France  aids  it,  118. 

methods  of,  121. 

overthrow  Gironde,  122, 

make  constitution  of  1793,  ibid. 
Janet,  cited,  217n,  240w. 
Jansenism,  causes  schism  in  Gallican 
Church,  66. 

offshoot  of  Third  Estate,  89. 
JaurSs,  on  evolution  and  revolution 
in  socialism,  253n. 

on  Internationalism,  282n. 

definition  of  socialism,  291. 

on  origin  of  society,  320. 
Jean  de  Troyes,  asks  for  reform,  88. 
Jesuits,  quarrel  with  Jansenists  dur- 
ing the  18th  century,  66. 
Jobez,  cited,  71w. 

Justice,  Idealistic  Socialists'  concep- 
tion of,  205  sq. 

KIRKUP,  on  origin  of  word  social- 
ism, 194n. 

LABOR,  effects  of  mechanical  pro- 
duction upon,  261. 
increased  interdependence  of,  861 

sq. 
Scientific  Socialism  on,  297  sq. 
relation  to  capital,  304. 
as  value,  306. 

under  Integral  Socialism,  343. 
Laboring  classes,  sympathy  of  the 

18th  century  for,  52. 
Idealistic  Socialists  begin  modern 

tendency  to  exalt,  207. 
Idealistic  Socialists'  plea  for,  228. 
affected    by    teachings    of    early 

socialism,  232. 
French,  inclined  to  individualistic 

production,  260. 
Scientific  Socialism  on,  311. 
Cf.  also  Artisan  and  Peasant. 
Labriola,    on    materialistic    concep' 

tion  of  history,  293». 


INDEX. 


393 


Labriola,    on   individual  and  social 

progress,  295. 
La  Bruy^re,  voices  the  awakening 

unrest  of  his  time,  7, 
Lafargue,    helps     found    Scientific 
Socialism,  279. 
definition  of  socialism,  291. 
on  development  of  the  individual, 

293. 
on  social  progress,  ibid. 
on    individuals    share    in     social 
progress,  294. 
Lafayette,  draws  up  Rights  of  Man, 
149,  149n. 
his  plan.  154n. 
Lally-ToUendal,  influenced  by  Amer- 
ica, 77. 
advocates  popular  sovereignty,  173. 
Lamartine,  cited,  119n. 
Lameth,  Charles  de,  on  equality,  160. 
La   Petite     Ripuhlique    Socialiste, 

cited,  240n. 
La  Rochefoucauld,  cited,  89. 
Lasource,  on  origin  of  society,  141. 

on  property,  165. 
Lassalle,  not  an  influence  in  French 

socialism,  276n,. 
Lavergne,  cited,  72n,  90n. 
Laurent,  cited,  136n,  138w. 
Law,    Mississippi   scheme,   and    its 

effects,  90. 
Law-courts,     their     bad     condition 

under  old  regime,  67. 
Lecotain6,  cited,  308n. 
Leroux,  his    religion  of  humanity, 
203,  204. 
his  influence  on  later  socialism,  231. 
Leroy-Beaulieu,  cited,  240n. 
Lesage,  his  works  express  the  criti- 
cal spirit  of  his  time,  27. 
Letter-patent  of  1788,  its  terms  and 

their  result,  78. 
Liberty,  demand  for,  in  France  dur- 
ing 18th  century,  25. 
demand     passes     through     three 
phases,  26,  27. 


Liberty,    liberty    of    thought    and 
speech,  27. 

Montesquieu's  definition  of,  28. 
Voltaire  on  intellectual,  29. 
on  civil,  30. 

Montesquieu  on  civil,  31  sq. 
Economists  on  civil,  33. 
Rousseau  on  political,  34. 
Economists  on  political,  36. 
Montesquieu  on  political,  37. 
Voltaire  on  political,  37. 
right  to,  claimed  by  revolutionary 

doctrine,  155. 
revolutionary  definition  of,  156. 
of  person,  during  Revolution,  156, 

157. 
of  thought,  157. 

summary   of    revolutionary    doc- 
trine of,  159. 
Lichtenberger,    cited,     pref.   v,    6n, 
15n,  20w,  22»i,  49n,  50w,  106n,  240n. 
Linguet,    political  reformer  of  18th 

century,  8. 
Louis  XII,  establishes  Parlement,  88. 
Louis  XIV,  phases  in  literary  history 
of  his  reign,  6. 
political  and   social  decay  during 
reign  of,  64. 
Louis  XV,  seems  consciously  to  work 
for  social  upheaval,  67. 
his  mistaken  methods  of  govern- 
ment, 67-69. 
Louis   XVI,    his    vacillating   policy 
fans  the  rising  revolt,  69,  sq 
prosperity    increases    during    his 

reign,  70. 
civil  law  under,  72. 
the  prey  of  factions,  74,  74n. 
Lowell,  cited,  252. 

MABLY,     political     reformer    of 
18th  century,  8. 
on  theory  of  Natural  Man,  15n. 
on  happiness,  20. 
on  social  responsibility,  23. 
on  liberty,  84n. 


394 


INDEX, 


Mably,  on  equality,  42, 
Majority  rule,  taught  by  Rousseau,  35. 
revolutionists  on,  173,  187. 
advocated  by  Idealistic  Socialists, 
202. 
Malon,  on  Pecquer  and  Vidal,  223. 
founds    "  Society  d'  ^conomie   so- 

dale,'''  280. 
definition  of  socialism,  314. 
on  ideals  in  socialism,  316. 
Malouet,  on  popular  sovereignty,  174. 
Manifesto  of  1847,  first  expression  of 

Marxian  doctrine,  277. 
Marivaux,  novelist  of  manners,  6. 
expresses  the  critical  spirit  of  his 
times,  27. 
Martin,  cited,  63n,  68n. 
Marx,   makes   socialism  a   political 
and  international  movement,  275. 
his  theories  unify  socialism,  276. 
popularity  of,  in  France,  277  sq. 
his  great  power  as  a  leader,  ibid. 
does  not  promise  a  final  solution  of 

social  discontent,  291. 
on  movement  in  history,  296. 
on  property  forms,  297. 
on  value,  806n.. 

criticism  of  theory  of  value  of,  306n. 
Marxism.    See  Scientific  Socialism. 
Materialistic  conception  of   history, 
suggested  in  Saint  Simon,  220. 
as  given   by  Scientific   Socialism, 


comparison    of  Saint    Simon   and 

Marxism  on,  297n. 
is  unscientific,  299. 
is  not  supported  by  history,  300. 
is   inspired    by    rebellion    against 

established  conditions,  301. 
tends  unintentionally  to  quietism, 

302. 
Mechanical    production,    its   effects 

upon  the  workman,  261, 
increases   the  interdependence   of 

workers,  263  sq. 
and  of  nations,  263. 


Mechanical  production,  gives  social 

ism  a  specific  complaint,  265. 

changes  standard  of  living,  268. 
Mercier,  one   of    the    founders    of 
modern  political  economy,  8. 

on  happiness,  21. 
M6ricourt,  Mile,  de,  her  salon,  96. 
Meslier,  among  earliest  reformers  of 
18th  century,  8. 

on  progress,  15n. 

definition  of  happiness,  21. 

his  "  Testament "  and  its  influence 
26n. 

on  liberty,  34 

on  equality,  41. 

on  property,  48. 
Michel,  cited,  146  sq.,  180n,  a04n,  205n, 

212n,  217n,  223n. 
Michel  de  THopital,  asks  for  social 

reform,  88. 
Michelet,  cited,  97n. 
Minorities,  apt  to  rule,  113. 

control  during  Revolution,  113. 
Mirabeau,  on  Louis  XVI,  74n. 

at  Jacobin  Club,  99. 

controls  Constituent  Assembly,  112. 

great  popularity  of,  116. 

on  Rights  of  Man,  151,  151n. 

presents  Rights  of  Man  to  Assem- 
bly, 153. 

on  liberty,  156. 

on  religious  liberty,  157, 158. 

on  equality,  160. 

on  property,  166. 
Montagnards.    See  Jacobin  Party. 
Montesquieu,  leading  political  theo- 
rist, 8. 

his  theory  of  first  causes,  12. 

on  progress,  15ri. 

doctrine  of  relativity  of  all  laws,  16. 

on  means  to  happiness,  20. 

definition  of  liberty,  28. 

on  civil  liberty,  31  sq. 

on  English  constitution,  32n. 

on  political  liberty,  37. 

on  property,  47. 


INDEX. 


395 


Montesquieu,    his  influence  on  the 

revohitiooary  doctrines,  53. 
Montmorency,  Due  de,  on  the  Rights 

of  Man,  162. 
Morelly,  his  place  in  political  reform, 
8. 
doctrine  of  progress,  15n. 
on  happiness,  21. 
on  equality,  41. 
Morley,  cited,  13n,  35u. 
Morse-Stephens,     cited,    79n,    119n, 

135n. 
Mounier,  on  Rights  of  Man,  154n. 
on  function  of  state,  180, 

VTATIONAL   workshops,  effect   of 
i^     their  failure  upon  socialism,  231. 
Natural  Man,   theory   developed   in 
18th  century,  14. 
taught  during  Revolution,  139. 
controlling  theory  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, 141. 
Natural    religion,    in    revolutionary 
theory,  133  aq. 
foundation  principle  of  Revolution, 
138. 
Natural  Rights.    See  Rights  of  Man. 
Nature,  Physiocrats  appeal  to,  19. 
Revolution  calls  it  final  authority, 

133. 
said  to  be  the  guide  to  happiness, 
137. 
Necessity,  doctrine  of,  supported  by 
Marxism,  294. 
unscientific  character  of,  299. 
Necker,  writes  concerning  political 

reform,  8. 
Necker,  Madame,  her  salon  in  1789, 

95. 
Newspapers,  come  to  France,  during 
the  Revolution,  105. 
have  a  marked  share  in  spreading 
revolutionary  principles,  105. 
Noblesse,    its    prejudices    make   it 
poUtically  inactive,  80. 
equality  within  the  caste,  81. 


Noblesse,  loses  wealth  from  12th  to 
18th  century,  81. 
under  Louis  XVI,  82-84. 

OLD   REGIME,    its    decay    under 
Louis  XIV,  6,  64. 
under  Louis  XV,  62-69. 
final  downfall   under  Louis  XVI, 
69-75. 
Oath  of  the  Tennis  Court,  74. 

PAMPHLETS,  of  Revolution,  great 
numbers  of  them,  106. 
more  important,  preach  doctrines 

strongly  radical,  106. 
"  Qu'  est  ce  que  le  Tiers-Etat  f  "  of 

Sidyes,  107. 
important  writers  of,  107n. 
Palais  Royal,  center  of  radicalism,  in 

1789,  100. 
Paris,  its  influence  in  shaping  revo- 
lutionary principles,  94  sq. 
Parties  of   the  Revolution,  succeed 
each  other  rapidly,  115. 
two  chief,  119, 120. 
Party,  modern  socialist,  in  France, 
beginnings  of,  278  aq. 
factions  of,  279  sq. 
program  of,  281-284. 
Pascal,  his  attitude  toward  reason, 
12. 
of  Third  Estate,  89. 
Peasants,  of  old  regime,  84,  84n,  &). 
prosperous  among    them   sympa- 
thize with  new  principles,  85. 
of  to-day,  and  socialism,  284  sq. 
Pecquer,  on  property,  212n. 
on  accepted  methods  of  production, 

223. 
influence  on  later  socialism,  231. 
'■'■  Philosophes,'"  the  general  tenor  of 
their  teachings,  8. 
artistic  gifts  of,  9. 
iconoclastic  influence  of,  10. 
Philosophy,  English,  becomes  French 
doctrine,  76. 


396 


INDEX. 


Physiocrats,   doctrine   of   origin   of 
society,  15. 
definition  of  happiness,  19. 
chief  members  of  the  school,  19n,. 
definition  of  Hberty,  28. 
on  civil  liberty,  32,  33. 
on  political  liberty,  36. 
teach  equality  of  opportunity,  42. 
their   influence   on   revolutionary 

theory,  53. 
appeal  to  Third  Estate,  92. 
their  doctrine  during  the  Revolu- 
tion, 130. 
Political     concensus,     lack     of,     in 

France,  252  sq. 
Political  Liberty.    See  Liberty. 
Political  theory,  of  England,  serves 

for  French  model,  75,  76. 
Pope,  his  influence  on  the  "p/ittoso- 
p/ies,"  23. 
during  the  Revolution,  134. 
Populace  of  Paris,  force  the  doctrine 

of  democracy  on  France,  114. 
Popular    Sovereignty.     See     Sover- 
eignty. 
Possibilists,  faction  of  modem  French 

socialism,  279. 
Potter,  De,  on  Property,  387. 
Power,  Distribution  of.    See  Distri- 
bution of  Power. 
Principles  of  the  Revolution,  three 
stages  to  their  final  expression, 
110-116. 
their  radical  and  inclusive  charac- 
ter, 129. 
absence  of  economic  theory  in,  130. 
fundamental    doctrine     does    not 
change  during  the  Revolution,  132. 
explanation  of  final  causes,  133  sq. 
recognize  Deity,  135. 
rejects  authority,  136, 
on  mundane  happiness,  137. 
on  origin  of  society,  139. 
on  "  Natural  Man,"  140, 141. 
on  social  progress,  ibid. 
on  social  contract,  142  sq. 


Principles  of  the  Revolution,  theory 

of  government,  145. 

individualism  of,  146. 

why  include  Rights  of  Man,  149-154. 

doctrine  of  liberty  of  person,  156. 

of  liberty  of  thought,  157. 

doctrine  of  equality,  160-163. 

theories  of  property,  165-169. 

sovereignty,  170. 

right  of  resistance,  174. 

function  of  state,  178. 

summary  of,  185. 
Production,    modern     methods   of, 
criticised  by  Idealistic  Socialists, 
212  sq. 

bring  great  changes,  261  sq. 

under  Integral  Socialism,  344-349. 

Cf.    Mechanical    Production    and 
Capitalistic  Production. 
Progress,  Social.  See  Social  Progress. 
Proletariat.    See  Labor. 
Property,  doctrines  of  18th  century  In 
'     regard  to,  46-52. 

orthodox  theory  concerning,  46. 

Voltaire,  Montesquieu  and  the  En- 
cyclopedists on,  46, 47. 

Physiocratic  doctrine  of,  48. 

18th  century  communistic  and  so- 
cialistic theories  of,  48  sq, 

Rousseau  on,  50. 

revolutionary  doctrine  of,  168. 

revolutionary  theory  of  the  state  as 
protector  of,  165. 

theory  of  the  state  as  possessor  of, 
166. 

appropriationist  theory  of,  169. 

Idealistic  Socialists'  theory  of,  211 
sq. 

Proudhon  on,  212n. 

Saint  Simon  on,  212n. 

Fourier  on,  312n. 

Blanc  on,  212n. 

Pecquer  on,  212w. 

Babeuf  on,  212n. 

Scientific  Socialism  on,  296,  297, 

Mar^c  on,  297, 


INDEX. 


397 


Property,  Deville  on,  297. 

Integral  Socialism  on,  336  sq. 

Revolution  and  Socialism  on,  366. 
Prosperity,  increase  of,  during  Louis 

XVI's  reign,  70. 
Proudhon,  not  strictly  a  socialist,  yet 
an  influence  for  socialism,  195?i. 

recognizes  Deity,  200. 

on  social  justice,  205. 

on  property,  212n. 

on  classes,  224. 

influence  on  later  socialism,  231. 
Provincial  Assemblies,  Louis  XVI's 
plan  for  them,  71. 

their  character,  72. 

their  efl^ect,  ibid. 

QUESNAY,  helps  lay  foundation  of 
science  of  political  economy,  8. 
leader  of  a  section  of  the  Physio- 
crats, 19n. 
Quietism,    Marxism   logically  tends 
toward,  302. 

RABAUD  DE  SAINT  ETIENNE,  his 
pamphlet,  107n. 
on  religious  liberty,  157. 
Racine,  urges  reforms,  7. 
Rational  method    of   18th  century, 
11. 
of  the  Revolution,  136. 
Raynal,  philosopher  and  political  re- 
former, 8. 
Reason,  worship  of,  during  the  Revo- 
lution, 135,  135n. 
Referendum,  in  revolutionary  theory, 
176. 
advocated   by  Integral  Socialism, 
329. 
Religion,  Scientific  Socialism  on,  810. 
Renard,  on  internationalism,  282n. 
on  value  of  ideals,  317n. 
best  exponent  of  Integral  Social- 
ism, 318n. 
definition  of  society,  819. 
pn  causes  of  association,  320. 


Renard,  on  relation  between  society 
and  the  individual,  321. 
on  rights  of  the  individual,  323-825. 
on  functions  of  state,  326. 
on  property.  337  sq. 
on  production  under  the  socialistic 

regime,  343  sq. 
on  distribution,  349. 
on  value,  352. 
R6tif  de  la  Bretonne,  school  of  Rous- 
seau, 22. 
Revelation,  denied  by  the  Revolution- 
ists, 136. 
Revolutionary  Principles.    See  Prin- 
ciples of  the  Revolution. 
Reybaud,  cited,  194n,  198,  203m,  217n, 

240n. 
Right  to  fruits  of  labor,  Integral  So- 
cialism urges,  337. 
Right  to  Equality.    See  Equality. 
Right  to  Happiness.    See  Happiness. 
Right  to  Liberty.    See  Liberty. 
Right  to  liberty  of  thought,  157,  158. 
Right  to  Property.    See  Property. 
Right  of  Resistance,  derived  by  Revo- 
lutionists   from   popular  sover- 
eignty, 174. 
Right  to  security,  156, 157. 
Rights  of  Man,  discussed  in  salons, 
96, 
proclamation  of,  creates  anarchy, 

116. 
chief  doctrine  of  the  Revolution, 

131. 
deduced  from  theory  of  Natural 

Man,  140. 
two    interpretations    of,    during 

Revolution,  148, 149. 
history    of    embodiment    of,    in 

French  constitutional  law,  149. 
formulation     of,    opposed    by    a 

minority,  150  sq. 
right  to  security,  156, 157. 
right  to  liberty  of   thought,   187 

158. 
right  to  equaUty,  160-163, 


398 


INDEX. 


Rights  of  Man,  right  of  resistance,  174, 

served  as  weapon  of  revolt,  187. 

reasserted  by  Idealistic  Socialists, 
202. 

Integral  Socialism  on,  832-324, 
Robespierre,  at  Jacobin  Club,  99. 

on  Natural  Kights,  139n. 

on  social  contract,  144. 

on  government,  145. 

on  property,  167. 

on  popular  sovereignty,  178. 

on  right  of  resistance,  175. 

on  function  of  state,  181. 
Rocquain,  cited,  62n,  63n. 
Roland,  his  patriotism,  119. 

on  equality,  W)n. 
Roland,  Madame,  cited,  119n. 
Rousseau,  as  scientist,  8. 

his  deism,  13. 

on  Natural  Man,  15. 

on  means  for  individual  and  social 
happiness,  22  sq. 

definition  of  liberty,  28. 

theory  of  social  contract,  35. 

begins   the   demand  for  majority 
rule,  35. 

contradictory  position  on  civil  lib- 
erty, 86n. 

varying  point  of  view  on  equality, 
44. 

positive    influence    in    regard    to 
equality,  45. 

dual  effect  of  his  teachings,  45n. 

on  property,  50. 

influence  of,  on  the  revolutionary 
thinking,  54. 

appeal  of  Third  Estate  to,  92, 

political  problem  posed  by,  321. 

on  government,  330. 
Russell,  cited,  276?i. 

SABRAN,  MADAME  DE,  holds  re- 
actionary salon  in  1789,  95. 
Ragnac,  cited,  162n,  183w. 
Saint  Andr6,  Jean  Bon  de,  on  Natural 
Man,  139rv. 


Saint  Etienne,  Rabaud  de.    See  Ra- 

baud  de  Saint  Etienne. 
Saint  Just,  on  popular  sovereignty, 

174w. 
Saint  Pierre,  his  idea  of  happiness, 

22. 
Saint  Simon  (L.  de  Rouvroy,  Due  de) 

cited,  89. 
Saint   Simon   (Comte    de),    accepts 

Christianity,  200. 
advocates  legal  not  natural  rights, 

202w. 
on  social  justice,  205, 206. 
on  social  content,  208. 
on  education,  210. 
on  property,  212n. 
aims  to  use  scientific  methods,  217. 
on  social  progress,  219  sq. 
not   in   true   sense    an    Idealistic 

Socialist,  219n. 
originates  materialistic  conception 

of  history,  220. 
centers  interest  on  industrialism, 

222,  « 

on  classes,  224. 
position  toward  labor,  227n.. 
his  influence,  231. 
Salons,  of  the  18th  century,  95. 
of  1789,  ibid. 

their  political  character,  ibid. 
emphasize   and   concentrate    new 

opinion,  96. 
Science,  its  influence  on  progress  of 

socialism,  243  sq. 
brings  materialism  into  socialistic 

theory,  245. 
destroys  Utopian  character  of  so- 
cialism, 246, 
aids  to  make   socialism   popular, 

246  sq. 
Scientific  method.  Idealistic  Socialists 

aim  to  use  it,  197, 
Scientific  Socialism,  its  beginnings, 

279, 
definitions  of,  291  sq. 
its  general  character,  292. 


INDEX. 


399 


Scientific  Socialism,  only   relatively 
scientific,  292. 
its  theory  of  individual  and  social 

progress,  293-297. 
on  property,  297, 298. 
on  labor  and  capital,  298, 299. 
analysis   of   present  social  condi- 
tions, 303-312. 
on  surplus  value,  307. 
on  concentration  of  capital,  307  sq. 
on  government,  310. 
on  religion,  ibid. 
on  family,  ibid. 
on  state,  310  sq. 
weakness  of,  313  sq. 
Sechelles,  Herault  de,  presents  Con- 
stitution of  1793,  122,  154. 
Servan,  on  Rights  of  Man,  154n. 
S6vign6,  Madame  de,  cited,  90. 
Sieyes,  his  '•  Qu'  est  ce  que  le  Tiers- 
Etat?  '■'  107. 
advocates  the  elective  principle,  115. 
his  plan  for  Rights  of  Man,  154n, 
on  liberty,  15G. 
on  freedom  of  the  press,  158. 
on  function  of  government,  180. 
Social  consciousness,   developed  by 
democracy,  256. 
by  Rousseau's  teachings,  256. 
by  ethical  standards   of  the   19th 

century,  257. 
by  nationalism,  258. 
by  town-life,  ibid. 
aids  to  spread  socialistic  theory,  259. 
Social  Contract,  given  to  France  by 
Rousseau,  34n. 
the  doctrine  of,  35. 
during  the  Revolution,  142sq. 
Social  Justice.    See  Justice. 
Social  progress,  Idealistic  Socialists 
adopt  the  theory,  218. 
carefully  elaborated  by  Saint  Si- 
mon, 219. 
Idealistic   Socialists    foresaw    the 

completion  of,  221. 
Scientific  Socialism  on,  298  sq. 


Social  progress,  man's  share  in  bring- 
ing about,  302. 

Integral  Socialism  on,  317  sq. 
Socialism,  becomes  an  international 
movement  during  the  19th  cen- 
tury, 193. 
origin  of  word,  194n. 
two  periods  in  development  of,  194. 
prominence  of,  in  France   to-day, 

239. 
new  attitude  of  scholars  and  states- 
men toward,  239  sq. 
present  political  status  of,  241  sq. 
is  a  democratic  movement,  251. 
gains  currency  because  of  increas- 
ing social  consciousness,  255. 
becomes  a  specific  attack  as  me- 
chanical production  creates  inter- 
dependence, 264. 
seems  annihilated  in  France  after 

1848,  275. 
return  of  exiles  revives,  275. 
influence  of  Marx  and  Engels  on, 

276  sq. 
Scientific,  Ch.  VI,  §  I,  passim. 
Integral,  Ch.  VI,  §  II,  passim. 
principles     of     modern     French, 

357,  358. 
the  distinctive  part  of  the  theory, 
369  sq. 
Socialism,    Integral.     See    Integral 

Socialism. 
Socialism,  Scientific.    See  Scientific 

Socialism . 
Socialists,  Idealistic.    See   Idealistic 

Socialism. 
Society,  Rousseau  on  origin  of,  35. 
Revolutionists  on  origin  of,  139  sq. 
origin  of,  according  to  Marxism, 

293  sq. 
origin    of,    according  to    Integral 

Socialism,  317  sg. 
Integral  Socialists'  definition  of,  318. 
Integral  Socialism  on  development 

of,  320. 
Integral  Socialism  on  end  of,  880. 


400 


INDEX. 


Society,     Revolution     and     modern 

French  socialism  on,  364. 
Sovereignty,  doctrine  of  popular,  35. 

Revolutionists  on,  173 
Standard  of  life,  alters  with  new  me- 
chanical processes,  268  sg. 
brings  greater  social  unrest,  271  sq. 
effects  of  this  on  socialism,  272  sq. 
State,  French   political    theory   on, 
responsibility  of,  23,  254. 
18th  century  theories  as  to  func- 
tion of,  24  sq. 
revolutionary  doctrines  as  to  func- 
tion of,  178  sq,  182. 
Idealistic    Socialists  on    responsi- 
bility of,  208,  209. 
first  duty  of,  according  to  Idealis- 
tic Socialists,  210. 
Idealistic  Socialists  on  control  of 

industry  by,  225. 
their    method    for    such    control, 

228. 
Scientific  Socialism  on,  309. 
Integral    Socialists"'    definition    of, 

319. 
Integral  Socialism  on  function  of, 

320  sq. 
Integral    Socialism   on    justice   of 

control  of  industry  by,  335. 
Revolutionists   and    Socialists    on 
function  of,  365. 
States-General,  of  1789,  arrange  for, 
73. 
of  16  5,  88. 
Statistical  bureau,  planned   by   In- 
tegral Socialism,  346. 
Sudre,  cited,  162, 166. 
Surplus  Labor,  299. 
Surplus  Value,  307. 


TAIN 
111 


^AINE,  cited,  82n,  8bn,  84n,  85n,  90«-, 
I  In. 
Talleyrand,  on  function  of  the  state, 

181. 
Talma,  Madame,  her   salon   during 
the  Revoli;tion,  96. 


Target,  on  function  of  government, 

180. 
Taxation,  under  old  r6gime,  causes 
discontent,  68. 
effect  of,  on  Third  Estate,  91,  92. 
Theatres,  of  the  Revolution,  active 
share  of,  in  spreading  new  opin- 
ion, 103  sq, 
Thierry,  cited,  81n,  86n,  87n,  88n,  89n, 

91n. 
Thiers,  cited,  121n. 

Third   Estate,   medium    to   express 
principles  of  the  Revolution,  78. 
causes  of  its  preeminence  in  1789, 86. 
radical  tendency  of,  87. 
becomes  distinct  as  a  class,  ibid. 
grows  to  power,  87, 88. 
position  of,  during  reign  of  Louis 

XIV,  89. 
during  18th  century,  90. 
grows  indifferent  to  political  rights, 

ibid. 
increasing  wealth  of,  arouses  other 

ambitions,  ibid. 
rebellion    of,  against  code  of  eti- 
quette, 91. 
finally   undertakes    leadership    in 
spreading  the  revolutionary  doc- 
trine, 92. 
Tocqueville,  De.    See  De  Tocqueville. 
Town-life,  develops  social  conscious- 
ness, 258. 
Trades    unions,  make   for   stronger 
class  feeling.  266. 
how  aid  socialism,  267. 
Tronchet,  on  pi  operty,  167 . 
Turgot,  one  of  first  political  econo- 
mists, 8. 
his  plan  of  reform,  71. 
suggests  theory  of  social  progress, 
140. 

\r  ACILLATING  policy  of  Louis  XVI 
stirs  revolt,  69-75. 
Value,  Scientific  Socialism  on,  306  sq, 
Marx  on,  306n. 


INDEX. 


401 


Value,  critical  discussion  of  Marxian 

theory  of,  306n. 

Integral  Socialism  on,  352  sq. 

discussion    of   Integral   Socialists' 
theory  of,  354  sq. 
Vatel,  cited,  119. 
Vauban,  plans  for  reform,  7. 
Veblin,  cited,  270. 
Vergniaud,  at  Jacobin  Club,  99. 

his  eloquence,  119. 

on  Natural  Man,  139n. 

on  social  contract,  144. 

on  property,  166w. 

on  popular  sovereignty,  174. 

on  right  of  resistance,  174»i. 

on  separation  of  powers,  176n. 
Vidal,  on  productive  property,  212n-. 

on  methods  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution, 223. 

influence  on  later  socialism,  231. 
Villey,  cited,  194?i. 


Volney,  on  revelation,  136. 

on  primitive  man,  140n,  143n. 
Voltaire,  as  scientist,  8. 

on  first  causes,  12. 

on  means  to  happiness,  20. 

general  standards  of,  29. 
«  on  intellectual  liberty,  29. 

on  civil  liberty,  30. 

on  political  liberty,  37. 

on  equality,  43. 

on  property,  47. 

nature  of  influence  of,  53. 
Von  Hoist,  cited,  lOw,  71n,  91n,  109w, 
116?i. 

WELSCHINGER,  cited,  108w. 
Werner-Sorabart,  cited,  276n,  279n. 

YOUNG,  ARTHUR,  cited,  83w,  84rt, 
lllw. 


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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  INDEX. 


407 


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408 


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409 


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